welcome... Welcome to the latest edition of Specialist Financial Focus. By the time you are reading this, Christmas will be a distant memory and you will no doubt be aware 2018 will present a number of challenges for all of us. The one currently on everyone’s lips, since the F.C.A’s Senior Management Scheme was moved back to 2019, is GDPR. General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR will come into force on 25th May 2018 and will affect every one of us. Still almost everyone I speak to does not have a clue what is to be expected of them. Even the ‘experts’ have vastly different opinions on what needs to be done – just check any GDPR discussion board on LinkedIn. One of the things we know will change is how we advise our customers on what we will use their data for. At present we email our Terms of Business to a customer at the outset of a transaction, that includes about a page of Data Protection wording. We also read a script to the borrower(s) over the telephone, recording the phone call for future reference. One of the rule changes will mean we will remove the information from our Terms of Business, as the information relating to how we use their data must be in a separate document. Sounds daft, but the EU do not want us ‘hiding’ this information within another document. That is despite the fact 99.999% of borrowers could not care less about any of this. In the last 13 years we have read our Data Protection script to over 60,000 customers. How many do you think have said we cannot process their data for the reasons stated? One! If you rely on marketing previous customers for repeat business, you should by now be contacting your customers to ask them to opt in under the new rules. Permissions given previously under D.P.A. will run out on 25th May 2018 and you will not be able to rely on them. You will also need to obtain marketing permission from anyone you have a B2B relationship with, if they are a sole trader or partnership. It doesn’t get any easier, does it? As we learn more before GDPR day, we are happy to share this information with you. Register with us today at: www.SpecialistHub.co.uk to keep up-to-date. Managing Director, Specialist Financial Services Ltd 7 9 contents 4 Specialist Overview Learn more about our brands 7 Specialist Commercial Finance Challenger banks - a new breed 9 Specialist Bridging Finance How the tools of the trade have evolved 11 Specialist Second Charges The resurgence of second charges 13 Specialist Products Banks for all seasons 15 Specialist Residential Finance Technology in specialist mortgages 17 Specialist Bridging Finance Plans to tick all the boxes 18 Specialist Mortgage Show SFS brings you the Specialist Mortgage Show; a series of monthly roundtable events taking place throughout the UK 19 The Loan Ranger The biggest danger to our industry? The contents of this publication are for intermediary use only and should not be passed to the general public. Specialist Hub, the Loan Processing Centre, Specialist Bridging Finance, Specialist Commercial Finance, Specialist Development Finance, Specialist Homeowner Finance and Specialist Residential Finance are trading styles of Specialist Financial Services Ltd. Registered in England and Wales, company number 05309450. Registered office is 119 The Hub, 300 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BE. Specialist Financial Services Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 676853. www.SpecialistHub.co.uk 3 13 15
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