Origo, the standards body for ecommerce in the financial services industry, today announced that RBS Intermediary Partners is the latest lender to sign up to the Origo mortgage e-standards initiative.
David Jones, commercial director of RBS Intermediary Partners, commented: "We have been working with Origo now for several months and are delighted to be able to announce that RBS Intermediary Partners will be supporting the Origo ecommerce initiative. We have a track record for consulting with our intermediary partners on industry issues. They fully support our involvement in this so we will take an active role in helping to develop a first class solution."
Standards will help increase efficiency and drive out unnecessary manual business processes and multiple re-keying of data, making life easier for intermediaries, packagers and others involved in the distribution process. Standards will also enable lenders to increase their ecommerce capabilities and responsiveness to demands from customers, whilst minimising development efforts.
Paul Pettitt, managing director of Origo, commented: "Our aim is to facilitate collaboration with all relevant parties and encourage the mortgage industry to work together to evolve ecommerce within the marketplace. The initiative will give strategic direction to ecommerce developments and ensure a universal approach that benefits everyone."
The initiative is supported by The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) as well as other lenders, including: Abbey, Accord, Future Mortgages, GE, GMAC-RFC, HBOS, Kensington, Money Partners, Mortgage Express, Mortgages plc, Nationwide, Paragon, Platform and Portman BS. It is open to all lenders, intermediaries and technology companies in the industry and Origo will continue to encourage further support over the coming months.
As previously announced, there is demand for standards to underpin a range of business processes in the mortgage market, including: Decision-In-Principle/Approval-In-Principle; Key Facts Illustrations; Full Application; Sourcing; Case Tracking; Procuration Fee reconciliation; and to also consider how to address the issue of multiple passwords for lenders' extranets. It is anticipated that the industry's digital certificate of choice, UNIPASS(r), could provide a ready made and simple solution to this and this is currently under consideration.