Allica Bank – the bank committed to empowering established small and medium-sized businesses – has announced it is increasing the maximum loan size for its commercial mortgages from £2 million to £3 million. It is hoped the move will help Allica Bank’s broker panel serve even more of their clients.

The increase comes in response to the bank’s quarterly broker survey in January this year, which polled 131 of the bank’s broker panel on their experiences of using the bank.

The SME bank, which won the 2020 NACFB Commercial Mortgage Lender of the Year Award, also announced a host of enhancements to its fee structure. The changes are designed to reduce the upfront cost to the customer and make things more straightforward. These include:

• Allica Bank’s commitment fee will change from 0.25% to a flat fee of £500, which is refunded at completion. It will need to be paid once a formal Loan Offer is made and before a valuation is instructed.
• Arrangement fees have increased from 1.5% to 2% and can now be added in full to the loan. Introducer Commission will remain at 50% of the Arrangement Fee.
• Allica Bank has a new Valuation Panel Manager who will collect the Valuation Fee directly from the Borrower.
• Rather than a Borrower paying Allica’s Legal Fee up front, they will now rely on the provision of an undertaking for the Legal Fee, to be provided by the Borrower’s solicitor.

“I’m pleased that we were able to act quickly and introduce these adjustments to make doing business with Allica even easier for brokers and their clients. This is a great example of the power that broker feedback plays in how we grow and develop Allica Bank’s broker proposition to be as clear and consistent as possible.”