Precise Mortgages has published a statement of its Mortgage Market Review (MMR) readiness.

The specialist lender says its overriding message is that brokers should experience only minimal changes when submitting cases to them.

The key changes are as follows:

Home Owner – effective from Tuesday 15 April

• a switch to using the five year forward sterling rate in its affordability stress test. The lender has always stress tested a borrower’s affordability against future rises in interest rates; the switch to using the forward sterling rate will have minimal impact, it says.
• all cases must be on an advised basis.
• for credit impaired customers (as defined by the FCA) where repayment of debt is required to meet affordability rules the conveyancer acting for the lender will be required to repay the creditors directly; again Precise expects this to have minimal impact

Bridging Loans (Regulated Mortgage Contracts only) – effective from Tuesday 1 April

• the maximum term will be reduced to 12 months.
• the lender will no longer accept cases where the interest payments are serviced from income.
• all cases must be on an advised basis.

An MMR page has been added to the lender’s website detailing key dates for brokers to consider.

Alan Cleary, managing director of Precise Mortgages, said: “We have always aimed, as far as possible, to be MMR ready so brokers should experience virtually no change to the information they have to give us.

“Our affordability calculator, which is available to brokers at point of sale, has always stress tested borrowers’ affordability, so the changes we have made for the new MMR requirements should have virtually no impact.

“There are some items to consider as we transition to the MMR rules, which are clearly described on our dedicated MMR website page.”