Platform withdraws from the self-certification market

Following the recent FSA Mortgage Market Review Paper, Platform, the intermediary lender of The Co-operative Bank, has today (4 November) announced that it will withdraw from the self certification market at the end of this week.

David Tweedy, Managing Director at Platform said: "The FSA Mortgage Market review paper has shown that continuing to offer self certification mortgages in its current format is unfeasible and after careful deliberation of the paper, Platform has now taken the decision to withdraw from the self certification market.

“We understand the FSA’s concerns around income verification and fully support its aims to improve transparency in the industry. However, we continue to believe that the industry must recognise that self employed people can have different circumstances and may not always be able to provide the normal proof of income documentation required.

“As a lender which prides itself on financial inclusion Platform remains committed to supporting self employed people and will now work with the sector with a view to developing a new product that meets the FSA’s guidelines.

”All our existing self certification customers will not be affected by our withdrawal from the market, on November 6, and their accounts will continue to run as normal.”

Platform specialises in mainstream mortgage products and offers a range of fixed and tracker rate mortgages to customers via intermediaries, with specialist lending representing less than 20 per cent of its business.

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