Shawbrook has become the first bank in the UK to provide limited companies with the option to remortgage using the digital conveyancing platform, PEXA.

The bank has streamlined the property settlement process by partnering with PEXA to provide a digital platform for individuals and limited companies, where all parties involved in the property transaction can collaborate, exchange information, and settle the transaction electronically through the Bank of England via PEXA Pay. This includes activities such as transferring property titles, completing financial transactions, and lodging documents with relevant authorities.

Shawbrook, alongside the customer’s broker Clever Lending, has now completed its first limited company remortgage using PEXA for a professional property investor with an 11-property portfolio. Benefitting from automated valuation models (AVMs) and a fully packaged case, the whole process took just 28 business days from full mortgage application to completion.

Working with PEXA, Shawbrook’s objective is to continue reducing the time and effort on administration and to minimise the frustrations that the traditional remortgaging process can create for investors and landlords. Further work is now underway to fully integrate PEXA into Shawbrook’s application journey and to support remortgage journeys where it could soon be possible to complete a transaction in days – not the three to four months that the industry currently accepts as standard.

Steve Sanderson, commercial & bridging specialist at Clever Lending, said: “For professional property investors, additional admin and unexpected delays can be a frustrating part of the remortgage process.

“PEXA’s limited company functionality is an excellent addition to the Shawbrook offering as it reduces the time and effort required, providing a significant benefit to both brokers and our clients. It was a quick completion post-offer, so my client and I are delighted to start the new year with their remortgage done and dusted.”

Claire Rankin, director of specialist lending – real estate at Shawbrook, added: “We’ve continued to build on our evolving digital strategy, adding to existing innovations such as MyShawbrook portal, which provides automated underwriting decisions.

“Extending PEXA to limited companies is a further example of Shawbrook delivering against our technology ambitions, removing the unnecessary friction of manual completion payments, which will now benefit more customers. We’re glad that we are now able to further enhance user journeys and enable more property investors to benefit from a smoother, more efficient process, as demonstrated by this first completion for a limited company client.”

Andrew Lloyd, UK chief customer officer at PEXA, added: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Shawbrook and roll out the new limited company functionality of the PEXA platform.  We know that property transactions are still too painful and take too long here in the UK and launching limited company capabilities is the next step on our journey to enabling a smart, seamless and secure experience for those buying, selling and remortgaging property.

“We look forward to continuing to work with innovative partners such as Shawbrook to make this journey a reality.”