Banks' Beacon system produces higher scores?

Brokers are hungry for a credit rating system that many banks use and where Beacon scores appear to be trending higher.

Brokers are hungry for a credit rating system that many banks use and where Beacon scores appear to be trending higher.

“(That) would gives an advantage to those brokers who can use it because they get higher basis points,” Kuljit Singh of Mortgage Alliance told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “They are getting paid more.”

While Beacon 4 is industry standard for the broker channel, Beacon 9 is an updated system that includes such features as payment histories on mortgages as well as treating HELOCs as secured loans. Currently, that scoring system is furnishing a bump-up in Beacon scores for clients over the older system, argue some industry insiders, referring to a recent Equifax presentation.

Brokers are increasingly looking to win any and every possible advantage for their clients in an era of tightening mortgage underwriting, so the appeal of a credit rating system that better reflects a client’s solid mortgage repayment history is welcomed.

That could accrue to the benefit of any online application platform able to offer the Beacon 9 system.

“We should have the opportunity to use it if you want to,” Singh said.

The introduction of Beacon 9 could further heat up competition between MorWeb and industry leader Expert, by D+H, as Marlborough Stirling gains greater reach with some broker lenders.