HSBC to refer borrowers to Charcol

The seven month pilot goes live today at one of the bank's Cambridge branches, and will be rolled out to 20 branches countrywide. The service, called 'Mortgage Matcher' is aimed at those customers who do not currently have an HSBC mortgage or who need the type of mortgage that HSBC does not offer. "We are not launching the referral service because we have seen a huge surge in the number of customers who do not qualify for our own mortgages, we are simply offering this as an extra facility for customers," says Mark Hemingway, head of media relations at HSBC. "HSBC has never offered the f...