Cheltenham & Gloucester withdraws from the broker market

by Aaron Strutt

Mar 18 2011

Cheltenham & Gloucester, part of Lloyds Banking Group, is to no longer accept applications from mortgage brokers with effect from March 31, 2011. The lender also announced that they are to cut 570 jobs across the group, some of which will come from the C&G sales team.

There has been a long history of mortgage brokers and financial advisors using C&G but it will stop at the end of this month. The bank has not offered particularly competitive mortgages since the credit crunch started, however it is a shame that such a big lender will be reducing lending by such a huge amount. Halifax will be expected to pick up C&G's future mortgage business and they have been making preparations by installing new, faster computer systems and making improvements to the services that they offer.

Aaron Strutt, a broker at Trinity Financial, says: "The Lloyds strategy is completely different from banks such as Santander. Last year around 80% of Stantanders new mortgage business was submitted through the intermediary market and they show no signs of slowing their demand. As a company Trinity Financial did very little with C&G over the last few years and we now expect Halifax to move lending forward. Even so, it is a sad day for C&G and the staff they are making redundant."

March 18, 2011