Darlington Intermediaries and Legal & General have announced the launch of an affordability calculator.

The lender revealed that its system is powered by technology from L&G and will help to “drive operational efficiencies” for both itself and advisers.

The calculator reviews borrower affordability before L&G technology cross-references this information against a selection of Darlington’s lending criteria, including maximum loan amount and minimum property valuation.

Darlington also stated that the new tool will provide insight into where current demand lies in the mortgage market and the types of borrowers that advisers are seeking solutions for. This data would then then played back to the lender, allowing them to identify areas of opportunity, which they can feed into product development plans.

“Creating a more seamless mortgage journey has clearly never been more important for our sector than it is today,” L&G Mortgage Club director, Kevin Roberts, commented. “The mortgage market is experiencing unprecedented demand from borrowers and with ever-changing product criteria, advisers want quick decisions to find out if a lender is able to help their client.

“We think technology is absolutely critical to creating this streamlined mortgage process and this enhanced affordability calculator we’ve developed will help to drive operational efficiencies for Darlington, while providing valuable market insight for the lender’s future plans.”

Darlington chief customer officer, Darren Ditchburn, added: “We know how precious time is to advisers and believe this will enable a quick and effective sense-check ahead of submitting a full enquiry.

“The fact the calculator also filters with sections of our lending policy leads to a better and more accurate decision, a slicker experience and most importantly saves time for advisers.”

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