Nationwide Building Society-owned intermediary mortgage provider The Mortgage Works is to move away from its core IFA client base by launching a "small pilot" to provide direct-to-consumer (D2C) products.
Currently the "pilot" service is for "customers who approach Nationwide branches" or alternatively "telephone directly" enquiring about buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages.
The scheme, FTAdviser sources suggest has already been introduced by the Bournemouth-based company at trade shows, is expected to be part of a test bed to roll out a stand alone D2C offering for BTL customers later next year.
A spokeswoman for The Mortgage Works told FTAdviser: "The Mortgage Works (TMW), part of the Nationwide Group, has been running a small pilot over the last year to help customers who approach Nationwide branches or telephone directly in search of a buy to let mortgage."
Up until now, The Mortgage Works has worked primarily through regulated intermediaries. It specialises in buy to let mortgage finance.
Originally Sun Bank, The Mortgage Works was purchased by the Portman Building Society in 2001. When Portman was merged with Nationwide in 2007 it continued to trade under a separate name as a subsidiary.
Mike Barrett, consulting director at Edinburgh-based the lang cat, said: "I always think of things from the client point-of-view and it's up to the client if they want to take advantage of a new opportunity, and if a provider is changing the way [it] offers products- then so be it."
