Solent Mortgage Services (SMS) has added Hinckley & Rugby Building Society to its lending panel in association with network partner Openwork.

SMS’s CEO Ian Balfour said the Hinckley & Rugby joins a growing number of smaller mutual lenders looking for greater representation in the intermediary market.

He said: “We are seeing a growing movement of lenders like the Hinckley & Rugby choosing to work with specialist distributors like SMS, as the most efficient and cost effective way of reaching the wider broker community.

“Relationships like this offer a perfect solution for both lender and broker, maintaining high service values and delivering competitively priced products with sensible underwriting and attractive criteria.

“We are working closely with a number of networks and they are particularly comfortable for their members to have a single point of access to a lender like Hinckley & Rugby, which not only improves their compliance oversight on cases but gives members the best assistance with enquiries from our staff.”

Carolyn Thornley-Yates, business development manager at the Hinckley & Rugby, added: “We are excited to be able to gain further access to the intermediary 
sector by working with SMS and are looking forward to a fruitful
relationship in 2013.”