Any underwriters and mortgage values here?

[Zoommeout]

Do underwriters know/ see the names of the people making the application? (Or is each case assigned a number etc so it’s anonymous ?)

If they can see names, how is it ensured there is no bias?

when you say bias - do you mean if the name suggests a certain ethnicity?

@2026Y - yes, that’s right

I don’t know for sure (I know that some companies do this now for interviews) but I’d be very surprised if they did anonymise them. The only time I have been refused a mortgage they cited a specific issue on my credit file (which I was able to rectify) so I think you’d expect a reason if you got declined (which obviously would need to be legitimate).

I had watched a program a while ago that was about America how valuers would under value home owned by certain people Minority groups.

Im on a fb group where people can post anon, and there have been a fair few posts where people have ticked all the right boxes and even the mortgage advisor is stumped as to why a mortgage is not being granted .

DH is a mortgage broker and he has not noticed any issues based on ethnicity. The reasons for a decline would be such things as undeclared credit, quoted salaries not matching banked salaries, faked payslips, bank statements showing gambling, a large number of "buy now pay later", missed payments etc. Another reason might be that one party to the mortgage does not want the other applicant to know their financial details (yes this does happen and raises a whole bunting of red flags).

The adviser can usually find out the reason but may not be able to tell the applicant due to "tipping off" rules, money laundering etc.

There is always a reason and I doubt it is ethnicity