Furness Building Society is reporting record app-to-offer rates as it continues to roll out the third phase of its ‘mortgage transformation’ programme.

The society said it is seeing a 29% increase in the number of applications progressing to offer, as a result of its more flexible lending criteria and improved broker service levels.

The society’s new mortgage calculator it explained, has been purposefully designed to provide brokers with greater flexibility and confidence when assessing client borrowing potential.

Furness added that it is differentiating its proposition from that of lenders who rely increasingly on automated processes – and are unable to lend to many modern-day borrowers as a result.

Jon Cartlidge, head of member and broker strategy at Furness Building Society, commented: “Many brokers are looking for lenders willing to assess cases on their individual merits – rather than being fed through an automated system that is unable to evaluate the bigger picture.

“We believe our blend of technology, common sense and human expertise is delivering better outcomes for intermediaries and their clients.

“Over the past 18 months we’ve invested a great deal of time and resources into enhancing our lending criteria, building in greater flexibility and building a new mortgage calculator for brokers.

“Alongside our manual underwriting process, this is enabling us to find even more ways to responsibly say yes.”