Charter Court Mortgage Lending Passes £2.5billion

LONDON, November 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

• Over 14,500 loans completed in buy-to-let, residential and bridging to date 
• Exceptional asset quality  
• New mortgage lending forecast at £1.5 billion for 2015, up 114% on 2014 
• Over 32,000 savings accounts opened at Charter Savings Bank in just 8 months since launch 
• Savings customers have deposited £1.4 billion 

Charter Court Financial Services Limited (Charter Court), the specialist challenger bank and owner of Precise Mortgages and Charter Savings Bank, today announces it passed through £2.5 billion of mortgage completions to the end of October 2015, helping over 14,500 buy to let landlords and home owners achieve their property ambitions.

New mortgage lending in 2015 is forecast to grow to c£1.5 billion, an increase of 114% vs. 2014. This has been driven by strong growth in core lending markets, competitive product rates and the current mix of stable economic conditions, rising real incomes, improving housing equity positions, and modest expectations of interest rate increases. Buy-to-let lending represents the largest sector, accounting for approximately 62% of Charter Court's total lending. The remaining 38% of lending includes residential home owners, many of whom - such as the self-employed - are not well served by high street lenders.

Charter Court has just eight mortgage loans where there are three or more payments in arrears - this equates to an arrears rate of 0.07%*, and reflects strong lending controls and underwriting criteria.  The CML mortgage industry average arrears rate is 1.19%**.

Charter Savings Bank, which has regularly been featured in the best buy tables since it opened for business in March 2015, has already opened over 32,000 savings accounts, in which customers have deposited £1.4 billion.

Ian Lonergan, CEO of Charter Court Financial Services Limited said: "Passing £2.5bn in cumulative lending and attracting £1.4bn of savings balances is a major milestone for the business. Along with other challenger banks of a similar scale, we are bringing a new level of choice and service to customers.  Our loan performance and service levels remain very strong due to the investment the business has made in excellent people and a scalable infrastructure."

About Charter Court Financial Services Limited (Charter Court) 

Charter Court is one of the fastest growing specialist banks in the UK, founded in 2008 and purpose built to meet increasing customer demand for specialist mortgages and attractive savings through our innovative products, exceptional value and great service. We operate through our three highly rated brands - Charter Savings Bank, Precise Mortgages and Exact Mortgage Experts - providing specialist mortgages and bridging loans, mortgage servicing, administration and credit consultancy and savings products.

Our focus is firmly on helping customers who are under-served by the High Street banks. We continue to build significant scale in our chosen markets, which are seeing strong secular growth trends. Since our launch we have achieved £2.5 billion of cumulative mortgage originations through our relationships with over 16,000 intermediaries nationwide, while Charter Savings Bank has already attracted £1.4 billion in deposits since launch in March 2015.  

Underpinning our success, our state of the art automated technology and systems ensure efficient processing, strong risk control, timely reporting and speed of product development. These factors have enabled our strong balance sheet growth and the exceptional credit quality of our mortgage assets.

Charter Court is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Charter Savings Bank is a trading name of Charter Court which offers sound employment opportunities for people wishing to further their careers in financial services and regularly contributes to the local community both financially and through employee initiatives.

*arrears rate based on mortgages as at month end September 2015. 

** CML mortgages >3 months in arrears at end of Q2 2015.