Solent Mortgage Services (SMS) has appointed two mutual lenders, Bath Building Society and the Buckinghamshire Building Society, to its panel.

Ian Balfour, SMS’s CEO, said the mutual sector is already providing a much needed alternative to the major high street names and brokers will be delighted to have new lenders offering a much more personalised service.

He said: “We are delighted to welcome two proactive regional building societies onto our panel. 2013 will be the year that mutual lenders really begin to exert their influence in the lending market. Both the Bath and the Buckinghamshire are keen to lend and will provide our introducers with a customer centric proposition they will appreciate.

“We had reached a point where the mortgage market, particularly in the area of prime home loans, where lending had become very black-and-white and where frequently good cases were being rejected. Valuable lending sources like the Bath and the Buckinghamshire Building Societies are, along with other smaller more entrepreneurial lenders, demonstrating that underwriting safely and compliantly is not just the preserve of those lenders who are reliant on credit scoring and computer generated decisioning.

“Good mortgage lending has always been about individual assessment, rather than inflexible rules. Brokers now have clear alternative sources for good clients whose circumstances require a real holistic approach to their cases.”