Bluestone, Vida, and Selina roll out changes to improve criteria, processes and distribution support
Three UK specialist lenders — Bluestone Mortgages, Vida Homeloans, and Selina Finance — have announced a series of changes aimed at improving access to mortgages, enhancing broker tools, and streamlining distribution models.
Bluestone Mortgages has updated its credit policy and tiering criteria across its residential range, expanding access for borrowers with credit blips. The lender has increased flexibility on county court judgments (CCJs), now allowing up to two CCJs in 36 months for its AA tier and three for its A tier.
In addition, Bluestone has raised the threshold for disregarding defaults and CCJs to £500 — up from £300 — and will now exclude utility bill-related defaults and CCJs, in addition to telecoms. It has also relaxed bankruptcy criteria, accepting customers discharged over two years ago on its AA tier, and over one year ago on A and BBB tiers.
“It’s crucial that lenders adapt to the diverse needs of borrowers,” said Steve Griffiths (pictured left), retail mortgages commercial director at Bluestone Mortgages. “These changes reflect our understanding of the challenges many customers face in accessing mortgages. By offering greater flexibility with CCJs, defaults, and bankruptcy history, we’re ensuring that more people have the opportunity to secure a mortgage, even if their financial past doesn’t fit the traditional mould.”
Meanwhile, Vida Homeloans has launched a new distribution model as part of its wider mortgage transformation strategy.
The model sees Vida invest further in the mortgage experience and strategic support it delivers to clubs, networks, packagers and firms. This approach was developed with intermediary partners and follows the lender’s recent move to specialist bank status.
“The banking licence authorisation was just the start of our journey to become the UK’s most trusted specialist mortgage bank,” said Vida chief executive Anth Mooney (pictured centre). “Our new distribution model further enhances the Vida experience for all our partners, and we are committed to investing in delivering exceptional service and proposition development.”
Elsewhere, Selina Finance has expanded its partnership with One Mortgage System (OMS), allowing brokers to submit decision in principle (DIP) applications directly from within the platform. The update builds on the “quick quote” feature launched in November, which enabled brokers to generate Selina quotes within OMS.
Now, data from a broker’s Fact Find will pre-populate the DIP application, which can then be reviewed in OMS before final submission through Selina’s broker portal. This removes the need for rekeying data and speeds up the process.
“This development is all about saving brokers time and improving their experience with Selina,” said Henry Vaughan (pictured right), vice president of growth at Selina Finance. “The fewer the clicks and manual inputs, the better. We’re pleased to be making it easier for brokers to engage with our products via OMS.”
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