Evolution Money has revealed that March was a record month for the business in terms of new introducers.

The second-charge lender saw a noticeable increase from smaller brokerages submitting cases for the first time.

Evolution Money took client leads from 36 separate introducers last month, with a number of firms funding first cases, first packaged cases and first ‘Hotkey’ cases, which allow Evolution’s team to take the lead through to completion on the adviser’s behalf.

The lender said it has seen a growing number of smaller brokerages outlining second-charge mortgage options to their clients and utilising either specialist packagers and distributors to carry out the case or passing the client details to Evolution itself.

Kerri Pender, operations director at Evolution Money, said: “Recent data from Knowledge Bank show that, within the top five second-charge criteria searches, capital raising for debt consolidation, home improvements and buy-to-let all figure highly. With borrowers looking to utilise their homes to fund this, while not wishing or able, to remortgage their first-charge, it makes perfect sense for advisers to be looking at the second-charge options available for their clients.

“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in activity and interest in recent months, and March in particular, was a busy month specifically from smaller brokerages who might not have used as before. April has continued where March left off, and given we have options for both prime borrowers and those with adverse credit, we’re anticipating that 2021 will continue in the same vein.

“Advisers who want to use a specialist in this sector should certainly find plenty of appetite to lend – we undoubtedly count ourselves amongst the group and want to grow both new and existing relationships with our broker partners.”