Knowledge Bank is partnering with the Financial Intermediary and Broker Association (FIBA) to offer its criteria search system to FIBA’s members.

The alliance will ensure FIBA members have the ability to search the widest range of both specialist and mainstream lenders’ criteria, saving time on more complex cases.

This comes at a time when FIBA is seeing a rise in the number of transactions in specialist finance, with some lenders on the FIBA panel reporting record months over the past quarter. It says with every lender having different criteria, it’s crucial that brokers are able to easily identify which lenders can help their clients.

Through Knowledge Bank, FIBA members can search hundreds of specialist finance criteria in seconds. As many brokers don’t deal with all elements of specialist finance business, Knowledge Bank provides them with a unique insight into lenders’ criteria.

This wealth of information is only available via Knowledge Bank as it is the largest database of mortgage and loan criteria held anywhere in the UK.

Another critical area for FIBA members is increased mortgage regulation. Brokers must provide evidence of research to prove they are giving the best advice, which is good practice on both regulated and unregulated cases.

Knowledge Bank supports this by giving a snapshot of the products available for each client at that particular point in time, based on criteria. This will contain details of both the client and the broker; it will be time and date stamped and can be imported straight into the broker’s CRM system.

Nicola Firth, chief executive officer of Knowledge Bank, comments: “With the increase in specialist lending, Knowledge Bank is essential for brokers to see exactly which lenders will accept their cases. The searches take seconds and will help them to place more complex cases as well as their mainstream ones. We look forward to supporting FIBA members to continue to deliver excellence for their clients.”

Adam Tyler, executive chairman of FIBA, adds: “Staying up-to-date on lending criteria is crucial for brokers and so we have partnered with Knowledge Bank as it has the most extensive range of criteria in the market and allows unlimited criteria to be searched at any time. We are strong admirers of the work undertaken by their award-winning team and we know that together we can provide an indispensable service to all of our broker members, our lender partners and, most importantly of all, their clients.”

“This is the latest announcement in our plan to execute the rollout of a number of services and benefits for members and we will add more partnerships in the future.”