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Who are Reliance Bank?

Reliance Bank started out in 1890 and was founded by William Booth, who also founded the Salvation Army. In 2018 there was a change in ownership for Reliance Bank, The Salvation Army International Trustee Company Ltd became the sole shareholder of the Bank following many years of joint ownership with The Salvation Army Trustee Company Ltd. A new 5- year strategic plan was approved providing investment to introduce new and improved products, improve operational capabilities and support an expanded mission to enable positive social impact. In 2019, The bank launched its new branding, updated to reflect the bank’s renewed commitment to socially responsible banking –  Giving Money Meaning. This also coincided with the Bank’s launch into the intermediary sector for Both residential Mortgages (through our dedicated partnership with our mortgage club distribution) as well as our Commercial team, mainly through NACFB and other introducers and financial advisers . The Bank is often affectionately known as the 133 year old start up, as the majority of the intermediary market has only recently started to hear about us as a lender

So, what sectors do Reliance Bank operate in?

In the world of Residential mortgages, the Bank has looked to focus on how we as a lender can provide a positive social impact by helping people onto the housing ladder, in particular we look to focus on 2 key segments of the mortgage market ;

Shared Ownership – helping people get onto the housing ladder and those who are looking to achieve a greater shared in the property that they own through staircasing, hence why we have a dedicated Shared Ownership Mortgage product Range

Key Workers – As a Bank, we want to help those Key Workers with their mortgage requirements, hence why we have a dedicated Key Worker mortgage product Range

Why use Reliance Bank ??

• We are a manual underwriting lender – which means it is not computer says no and no API algorithms to contend with and we look to use a common sense approach
• We credit SEARCH – not credit score – really helpful for those FTBs who do not have a track record of borrowing, which other lenders see as an issue
• We are transparent with our SLAs – we provide these to the broker when they call up to talk through the case – always best to be upfront and realistic to help you make the final decision as to who you can place the case with
• We carry out SOFT footprint for AIPs and HARD footprint for all Full Mortgage Applications
• When you call us to discuss placing your case, we complete an affordability assessment there and then over the phone, always great to see if your case fits our stress test as we do not provide an affordability calculator as we are a manual underwriting lender
• All our AIPs are valid for 4 MONTHS from date of issue
• All cases are assigned to a mortgage underwriter – who will be the brokers main point of contact – nothing beats old school case ownership + no call centre’s either
• All applications are closely managed by the underwriter from AIP all the way through to COMPLETION – not many lenders offer that type of handholding and ongoing regular follow up post mortgage offer and helps with the joint up approach with Lender / Broker / Solicitor & Customer
• All our Formal Mortgage Offers are valid for 6 months from date of issue (+ can offer 4 weeks extension depending on circumstances)

As mentioned, in terms of PRODUCTS and segment in the mortgage market – we will focus mainly on Keyworker products + Shared Ownership Products, where the LTV is mainly higher as this would fit more in the Banks ethos where we are looking to support people to get onto the housing ladder, as well as supporting Key Workers.

Shared Ownership;

• Our shared ownership proposition is simple – we as a lender will lend up to 95% LTV of the share – no matter if this is a new build property or not
• Our shared ownership products allow for new build purchase (using the when done model ) / re sale / remortgage / staircasing
• We now offer £850 cash back for all shared ownership cases where borrowing is £50,000 +
• Shared ownership remortgages can go up to a maximum LTV of 95% of the share – we can also include debt consolidation as part of the capital raise – subject to affordability assessment
• Shared ownership Staircasing, we are able to accept these types of application, again we can go up to 95% of the share for these, we do ask for confirmation letter from the housing association that staircasing has been approved – subject to affordability assessment
• If you have a client who is works in one of our Key worker occupations, we are able to complete full staircasing to full ownership by using our Keyworker Product Range

Keyworker Product Range

• We offer bespoke mortgage products to Keyworkers
• Can lend up to 95% LTV for Purchases
• Can lend up to 90% LTV for Remortgages / unencumbered properties – This is higher than for non-Key Workers wanting to Remortgage their properties not under shared ownership scheme, as this is capped to 75% LTV.
• Offer an attractive cash back for all Key Worker Applications where borrowing is more than £150,000+

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