Leeds Building Society will introduce retention proc fees this year

A plethora of lenders have announced plans to introduce retention proc fees this year, with Accord and Royal Bank of Scotland being in the news this week for that very reason.

Leeds Building Society will introduce retention proc fees this year

Leeds Building Society will introduce a retention proc fee of 0.20% in 2017 in line with a number of other lenders in the market.

A plethora of lenders have announced plans to introduce retention proc fees so far this year, with Accord and Royal Bank of Scotland being in the news this week for that very reason.

Hill said: “We’ve been watching as others are making announcements and all serious lenders have come out and said introducing retention proc fees is their intention.

“We’re in the development phase and we expect it to launch in 2017.

“I’ve been nervous about giving a specific date because I’m wary of launching something clunky that doesn’t meet the requirements of brokers.

“Currently our retention system is not designed for brokers and it needs to be.”

Hill was speaking in the wake of buoyant year-end figures showing Leeds recorded record profit before tax of £116.6m in 2016 with the help of a 28% increase in gross mortgage lending to £4bn.

The Leeds chief spoke of the importance of brokers to the society.

He added: “They’re absolutely paramount; nothing is higher priority than our brokers.

“We’ve been investing really heavily in building a business development manager team and I’ve spent a lot of time with our telephone business development team.”

“We’re very much in listening mode.”