In a multi-million pound deal, the Co-operative Bank has announced that Capita will be taking over its mortgage servicing operation in the UK over the next ten years.

Under the terms of the deal, more than 250,000 mortgage customers and £23bn of lending would be transferred to Capita, along with the bank’s operations in Leek, Staffordshire and Plymouth.

As part of the deal, Capita will acquire the people and assets of Western Mortgage Services. About 660 employees will transfer.

The division was purchased by the Co-op Bank alongside the acquisition of Britannia Building Society in 2009.

The deal is worth up to £325m over ten years and will start in the first quarter of 2015.

Niall Booker, chief executive at The Co-operative Bank, said:

“Our aim is to become a more efficient bank that is better placed to serve our individual and SME customers, with values and ethics at the heart of everything we do. Developing our core retail mortgage business is a key part of this strategy.”

“It is vital we improve our processes, consolidate and utilise up to date mortgage systems and, as a smaller bank, ensure we can respond nimbly in a competitive market, mindful of the impact of increased regulation to our cost base.”

“These proposals to partner with Capita would support our plans for growth in retail mortgages and would enable us to continue to deliver high standards of service to our customers and brokers.”

Andy Parker, Capita chief executive, added:

“Retail banking is facing unprecedented business and regulatory challenges and Capita is therefore focusing strongly on developing capacity to support this market.”

“Capita would work with The Co-operative Bank to deliver an enhanced service for customers, by, for example, using analytics and insight to give them the experience they want and expect from their mortgage provider.”

“Capita’s ambition is to draw on its business process and customer service transformation expertise to become the leading end-to-end mortgage processing partner delivering real value to financial services clients.”

Source: Insider Media
Image
Words: Daniel Pearce