Enabling scalability with enhanced tech servicing

Pepper Advantage partnered with LendInvest, taking control of servicing for all new and existing loans, as part of a move to free up the fintech lender’s time to focus on its long-term strategy.

About LendInvest

LendInvest is a non-bank mortgage lender in the UK and is a property-lending and investing platform. As an alternative fintech lender in the property market, LendInvest provides finance to property professionals and SMEs around the UK. It’s one of the leading asset management platforms in Britain, providing bridging loans, development finance and buy-to-let mortgages for intermediaries, landlords and developers.

Since starting out in 2008, LendInvest has facilitated more than £3 billion in mortgages, and has helped to put thousands of new and improved homes onto the housing market.

As the mortgage market evolved, LendInvest found that it needed support in the day-to-day servicing of new and existing loans so that it could focus on strategising for the future.

We’ve seen unprecedented change in the mortgage market in recent years, as property values have gone up, lending terms have lengthened, and there’s been an increase in government intervention and regulatory measures. Inevitably, Covid-19 has left its mark, too, and we’ve witnessed an acceleration in tech-led processes across all financial sectors.
LendInvest needed to free up time to navigate these changes and come up with a future-focused plan to ensure its on-going success. Pepper Advantage has a state-of-the-art end-to-end system, and employs specialised staff who use the latest data and technology to perform a comprehensive range of transaction services.

Taking the reins

Following an extensive RFP (request for proposal) process in the summer of 2016, Pepper Advantage was chosen by LendInvest as its preferred supplier. The main objectives of the project were to provide scalability and enhanced technological servicing solutions to enable growth in a more structured and robust environment, and to support LendInvest in its quest to diversify its product and customer-service propositions.

The key deliverables from the project were:

• In-house development of a totally unique loan-servicing engine to accommodate the bridging and development loan product requirements of the commercial real estate originations sector
• Successful migration of a large and highly complex back book of bespoke loans
• Commencement of the migration of all newly completed residential, buy-to-let and portfolio and limited company buy-to-let loans onto the Pepper Advantage platform
• Development of a successful daily data transfer process between the BEP originations platform and Pepper Advantage’s servicing systems
• Provision of a white-labelled service by a dedicated, ringfenced team, enabling a seamless customer transition from the LendInvest-owned originations process to Pepper Advantage experts
• Provision of email as a preferred and primary method of written customer communications
• Integrated telephony systems enabling customer calls to be transferred seamlessly between LendInvest and Pepper Advantage, providing uninterrupted customer service provision

Responsive, fast-acting approach

Pepper Advantage’s agile and responsive approach to the market was the perfect fit for LendInvest, as both businesses pride themselves on taking a can-do, innovative approach, always striving to find the best routes for all parties involved.

With expert teams in-situ, LendInvest was able to entrust the considerable tasks of migrating the back book and looking after existing and new customers to Pepper Advantage with immediate effect.
Tailored training was delivered to address customer expectations and brand representation. As part of the onboarding process, Pepper Advantage spent significant amounts of time understanding the clients’ brand guidelines, brand voice and culture.

“It’s fair to say the groundwork for this was very challenging but by massive commitment on all sides to make it a success, both for new business and for the transition of the existing book, the move to Pepper Advantage went very well. We have worked with a number of loan servicers who can be very willing at a senior level to engage but have been unable to be responsive or work as a genuine partnership – Pepper Advantage is the opposite of this,” said LendInvest.