Mansfield Building Society has launched a new mortgage broker portal as it looks to combine faster digital processing with its established manual underwriting approach for specialist cases.
The mutual said the launch of its Digihome platform follows its decision to appoint Tata Consultancy Services as its core technology provider, in a move aimed at giving intermediaries greater visibility and efficiency without moving away from individual case assessment.
The lender said the system had been built for the types of cases typically placed with Mansfield, including borrowers with complex income streams, minor credit issues, non-standard employment arrangements and later life lending needs.
It comes at a time when many brokers are weighing up the trade-off between lenders offering smoother digital journeys and those with a stronger appetite for more complex cases but less developed systems.
Mansfield said the new portal includes a more streamlined decision in principle and application journey, affordability checks at DIP stage, case updates by email and SMS for brokers and borrowers, and clearer tracking across the application process.
Tom Denman-Molloy (pictured), head of sales at Mansfield Building Society, said: “Our goal has been to combine the best of both worlds – providing the efficiency brokers expect and the human judgment they rely on.
“Technology should enhance how we support intermediaries, not dilute the individuality of our lending decisions.”
The society said the platform had been designed by TCS alongside the Mansfield team and shaped by broker feedback.
It added that future development would include integrating acceptance criteria and product rules into the system to give brokers earlier certainty on whether a case is likely to proceed, while still keeping underwriters focused on cases that require human judgement.
Mansfield said it did not intend to use the system to introduce rigid automated decisioning, instead positioning the portal as a way to remove friction from straightforward parts of the process.
Jon Stones, managing director at Mortgage 1st, said: “Our clients rarely fit a textbook profile, so we need lenders who are flexible without being inefficient.
“Mansfield’s new system strikes that balance perfectly – it speeds up the parts that should be simple, while leaving room for underwriters to properly assess more unusual cases.”
Denman-Molloy added: “The future of specialist lending is hybrid. Intelligent systems should do the heavy lifting, while experienced case handlers focus on the individuals behind the application.
“This launch is a major step in strengthening that model for brokers.”
