Fleet Mortgages has launched its new automatic decision-in-principle (DIP) system, which can be used to provide instant confirmation on whether the lender will accept or decline certain cases.

The new system has been developed following the lender’s monitoring of its manual DIP process and, after an initial soft launch, introduces an automatic DIP acceptance which is used for cases that score well on its bespoke credit-scoring system.

Fleet Mortgages believes advisers and intermediaries with quality clients will “benefit significantly” from the new system as it provides instant confirmation of the lenders’ intention to lend (subject to valuation and validation of information) compared to the 24 hours it currently takes.

Fleet Mortgages’ manual DIP process will continue to operate alongside the new automatic DIP system, with the lender saying it is committed to individual assessment of all cases submitted.

Bob Young, CEO of Fleet Mortgages, said: “At all times we monitor the performance of our system and our ability to respond quickly to advisers who submit cases and want a Yes or No answer as soon as possible. It’s not our intention to leave advisers and their clients hanging for days waiting to hear whether we will lend, so alongside our manual DIP process we have been able to introduce our automatic DIP accept/decline system.

“Where possible this will give an immediate response which will be especially useful for those advisers with clients who score highly on our credit-score system, and will also allow those who are declined to swiftly pursue other lending avenues. This is not a return to an instant ‘Yes’ without validation however as Fleet Mortgages will still complete a full underwrite of each case once we have received the valuation and the items requested.

“We soft-launched the system last week and we’re pleased to say it is already working well in practice. One adviser submitted a case, received an instant accept via the auto DIP system and the valuation was instructed just five minutes later. Not only is this good news for the client, but it allows advisers to deliver results quickly and provides certainty for all stakeholders.

“We take our service delivery and levels very seriously as they are critical to our overall offering and we believe the introduction of this system is a significant and important step for Fleet Mortgages to be able to offer to advisers.”