HML partners with Intelligent Environments to launch online mortgage service channel

Intelligent Environments, a digital banking provider and part of the Parseq Group, announces today that it has signed a contract with HML to build and host the mortgage industry’s first white-labelled online self-service platform for HML clients’ customers.

HML is a leading specialist financial outsourcer, managing approximately £43bn worth of mortgage assets for 45 clients. It handles customer enquiries on behalf of its clients for nearly 400,000 live mortgage accounts.

The deal with Intelligent Environments will enable HML to deliver an online mortgage management tool for its clients’ customers to view mortgage account details online including balance and last payment details, download commonly used forms, view FAQs and contact HML using secure messaging. The platform will also be upgraded later in 2011 to include an online payment facility.

Intelligent Environments will host the solution which will integrate directly with HML clients’ websites, presenting a seamless, fully branded service to the end user. The Intelligent Environments platform also provides HML with a secure hosting environment that can scale to meet future demand and cope with the monthly peaks in activity that the mortgage administrator experiences.

Amber Homeloans will be the first of HML’s clients to use the new software. Managing director for AmberHomeloans, Paul Fenn, is confident that customers will benefit. He said: “Online banking has been available for many years so it is a logical step for the mortgage industry. HML’s white-labelled service will be easy for us to integrate and will enhance our customers’ experience. This consideration was vital to us taking on the service.”

Neil Warman, chief commercial and finance officer at HML, said: “We developed the product because we understand that our clients’ customers want to access their mortgage account in a number of ways and an online service is a convenience that many now consider essential. Our white-labelled service gives our clients a fully branded website that improves the service experience we provide to their customers.”

Jerry Mulle, Sales and Marketing Director at Intelligent Environments, said: “HML is our first mortgage client and it reflects the increasing number of enquiries that we are receiving from the financial services sector to use the online channel for more than just their core banking products. This is very much in line with the consumer demand that we highlighted in a recent YouGov survey that found that 35 per cent of Britons would like regular access to an online portal or online banking to help them to manage money more effectively. We expect an increasing number of online self-service platforms to emerge as financial service providers seek ways to better engage with customers.”