Countrywide wants to spread its gospel of desktop valuations, home loans and web-based mortgage securitisation to the UK. Helen Osborne reports
US real estate broker Countrywide is piloting a desktop system in the UK which could slash residential surveyors’ fees in half (9 June, p37).
It is testing a valuation database alongside Barclays Bank, Abbey National, Halifax and Nationwide, with lenders expecting to launch the system across the UK laterthis year.
Using postcodes, the database will allow lenders to compare values of similar properties in England and Wales, giving desktop valuations for mortgages rather than paying surveyors to visit properties.
Countrywide, which already uses the desktop system in the US, employs 15,000 UK agents across 50 offices and is a residential mortgage lender and a global provider of financial services. It offers products and services such as home loans, insurance, investments and information technology solutions.
Wireless devices
Consumers can use wireless devices, as well as the web and, of course, the telephone to access its services. Institutional customers and business partners also have a variety of online, wireless and other personalised options for conducting business.
As one of the US’s largest securitisers of residential mortgage loans, Countrywide recently launched a corresponding lending division to buy mortgages from other lenders. The loans were resold as securities and Countrywide kept the “servicing rights”, that is, collecting loan payments for a fee. A wholesale lending division was formed in 1986 to fund mortgages generated by independent mortgage brokers. Countrywide now claims to be the US’s largest wholesale lender.
Deal brokering
In 1989, it launched Countrywide Servicing Exchange to broker deals for other lenders.
Automation has been an important focus for the business and Countrywide describes itself as “a technology company that happens to be in the mortgage business”.
In 1996 countrywide.com was launched and new sites subsequently added. Countrywide now derives 40% of its loan origination business from the internet via dozens of websites.
It has also expanded other financial services such as insurance and investments. The company has already formed a joint venture with Woolwich in the UK, with the formation of Global Home Loans.
Countrywide Credit Industries is the publicly owned (NYSE abbreviation: CCR) parent corporation and umbrella organisation for the Countrywide network of financial services companies. Its divisions include Countrywide Home Loans and CTC Real Estates Services.
The latter provides foreclosure services in certain western states for loans that have gone into default. It claims to be the only such company that serves as designated counsel for both of the US government- sponsored loan securitisation organisations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Powerful application
Fannie Mae, the US government-licensed public mortgage financier, purchases mortgages from banks, mortgage companies and other home loan providers. A significant player in the securitisation market, it has recently added an application that powers hundreds of banks’ online mortgage systems.
And Freddie Mac, created by the US Congress in 1970 to ensure competition, purchases loans from banks and mortgage brokers, then packages those loans into mortgage-backed securities.
In the UK, it may not be long before Countrywide makes its presence known.
