New criteria designed to streamline processes for intermediaries

Marsden Building Society has changed its expat buy-to-let mortgage criteria, to streamline the application process for intermediaries.

The simplifications include removing the minimum income requirement, reducing documentation requirements for employed and self-employed applicants – for example, self-employed applicants now only require one year of accounts (two years if top slicing) and employed applicants only require their most recent payslip, and removing the mandatory employer’s reference requirement for buy-to-let cases.

The Marsden has also removed its Country Exclusions list and says it will review expat cases based on real -ime data from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

However, it will not accept applications from customers residing in, or with financial links to, countries on the FATF High-Risk and Increased Monitoring (Black and Grey) Lists, available at https://www.fatf-gafi.org/.

Making it easier to submit and place expat cases

Applications are also not accepted from customers residing in EU/EEA countries, due to the absence of service agreements, or from residents of Australia due to legislative restrictions.

Jo Cave, head of mortgages at Marsden Building Society, said: “These changes demonstrate our ongoing commitment to supporting intermediaries with flexible lending solutions and straightforward processes. We’ve listened to broker feedback and taken steps to reduce unnecessary administration, making it easier to submit and place expat cases with us.

“Combined with our manual underwriting approach, these enhancements give brokers greater flexibility and more opportunities to meet the needs of their expat clients.”