Afin Bank has partnered with Westcor International to introduce perfect title insurance and streamline the mortgage process.
The lender will integrate Westcor International’s perfect title insurance into its process across England and Wales, reducing the reliance on some aspects of conveyancing.
Perfect title insurance allows lenders to proceed with a mortgage without waiting for certain legal checks to be completed in full. This enables transactions to move forward, and Afin Bank said this would not compromise risk management.
It will also give borrowers a streamlined experience with fewer delays, less friction and improved cost efficiency.
Afin Bank said this came at a time when borrower profiles were changing and more people were falling outside of standard criteria. It said conveyancing remained checklist-driven, which sometimes led to delays in a transaction.
Westcor International is an established provider of title insurance for lenders in the UK and adopts a specialist underwriting approach. Further, the firm has experience with complex transactions.
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Rob Lankey, national sales director at Afin Bank, said: “Afin has built its proposition around supporting borrowers who do not fit a standard lending model, where a more bespoke and responsive approach is essential.
“By working with Westcor and incorporating perfect title insurance into our process, Afin is able to reduce delays at a critical stage of the transaction and provide a smoother route to completion for our brokers and their clients.
“It allows us to deliver a lending experience that better reflects the complexity of modern borrower profiles, while maintaining the standards and oversight required of us as a lender.”
Christopher Taylor, corporate development director at Westcor International, added: “As lender requirements evolve, we are seeing a clear shift towards solutions that remove friction from the completion process without introducing additional risk.
“Perfect title insurance is designed to address that challenge, enabling specific elements of the conveyancing process to be replaced with an insurance-backed solution that protects the lender’s position.
“Partnering with Afin reflects how forward-thinking lenders are adapting their approach, combining strong underwriting with more efficient transaction structures to support a broader range of borrowers.”
Earlier this month, Afin Bank confirmed it was offering free legal fees on remortgage applications submitted before the end of May.