Thank you for your interest in registering for our Online System. Below you will find our Terms of Registration.

Intermediary Terms of Registration

It is important that you understand these terms of registration that apply to your use of our website to register as an Intermediary of Ecology Building Society, whose Head Office is at 7 Belton Road, Silsden, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD20 0EE. By using our website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to these terms. These Terms outline the basis on which we accept Applications from you and govern the provision and use of our Services. Please note that these Terms replace  any previous Terms of Business between us.

Definitions

In these Terms the following expressions shall have the following meanings where the context otherwise requires:

“Application” means any and all applications for a Mortgage Product submitted by you on behalf of your client;

“Client” means the client (or clients where more than one client is applying) for whom you are processing the application;

“Customer” means any person(s) who has submitted or may submit a completed application on the Online Application System through you;

“Data Protection laws and regulations” means all applicable legislation relating to data protection, the processing of personal data and privacy including (before 25th May 2018) the Data Protection Act 1998 and (with effect from 25th May 2018) the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, any legislation that in respect of the United Kingdom replaces or converts into domestic law the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 including is enacted as a consequence of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, and all replacement, amending and implementing legislation;

“FCA” means the Financial Conduct Authority; and any successor organisation

“Intellectual Property” means any patent, copyright, registered design, unregistered design right, trademark or other industrial or intellectual property owned or used by us together with any current applications for any registrable items of the foregoing;

“Mortgage Products” means mortgage products offered by us to customers from time to time;

“Payments” means any commission, charges or fees due to you from us in connection with applications;

“PRA” means the Prudential Regulation Authority;

”Services” means the services we provide to you in connection with applications; ”Terms” means these terms of business as amended, supplemented or novated from time to time;

“We”, “us”, “our” mean Ecology Building Society

”You” means the intermediary using our services and who has confirmed electronically that they accept these Terms;

Use of the Online Application System

        1.      The Ecology Online Application System is owned and maintained by us. Use of the Ecology Online Application System is subject to these Intermediary Terms;

        2.      You must be registered with us in accordance with these Intermediary Terms to use the Ecology Online Application System;

        3.      If you are not an Intermediary, your Intermediary or mortgage club must give you authorisation to use the Ecology Online Application System and have supplied us with your name;

        4.      Upon registration, you will be provided with a username and password. You will be able to change your password once you log-in to the Ecology Online Application System;

        5.      You must at all times keep your username and password secure and prevent unauthorised use of the same. You must immediately notify us if you know or suspect of any unauthorised use of your username or password;

        6.      You must immediately inform us of any changes to the information provided to us in connection with your registration; including any changes to your email address.

        7.      The Ecology Online Application System is only intended for the completion of applications for people resident in the United Kingdom;

        8.      We will ensure that the information provided on the Ecology Online Application System complies with the Applicable Laws.

General

        1.      By applying to register as an Intermediary with us, you warrant and undertake that you have and will maintain the necessary and appropriate registrations, permissions and authorisations with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out business to advise on and arrange mortgages and will inform us immediately if those registrations, permissions or authorisations are cancelled, withdrawn or restricted by the FCA.  You will have at all relevant times maintain and shall comply with the requirements of all licences necessary for you to conduct business;

        2.      You shall effect and maintain a policy of professional indemnity insurance and provide us with a copy of your current professional indemnity insurance certificate on demand;

        3.      You will comply with our application process for mortgage sales as notified to you by us from time to time, including in relation to the use of our website and contact with our employees, and in line with the expectations of the FCA’s Consumer Duty;

        4.      You have not acted unlawfully in connection with the preparation or submission of the mortgage application;

        5.      You have provided an illustration to the customer which meets the requirements of the FCA in MCOB and are responsible for the contents of that illustration where it has not been produced by us;

        6.      You will immediately, in full and without amendment, pass any documentation and/or information passed to you from us or the customer to its intended recipient (e.g. to the customer or us) respectively;

        7.      You will process all personal data (as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation) relating to individuals strictly in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and obtain all appropriate authorisations from the customer to provide the information in the application and supporting documents to us. Ecology Building Society shall be the controller of personal data about customers that has been gathered and collated for the purpose of us underwriting and administering a loan

        8.      The Society may record telephone calls for training and monitoring purposes, when contacting the Society calls may be recorded;

        9.      You authorise us to process personal data about the directors, owners and employees of your firm for the purpose of administering the relationship between the parties including sharing this information with fraud prevention agencies. You warrant that you have the necessary consents/lawful basis from the directors, owners and employees to enable you to give this authorisation to us;

        10.   You will notify us in writing as soon as reasonably practicable if you receive any complaints in relation to mortgage advice, product pricing, or product performance relating to the sale of our mortgage products so that we can monitor such complaints and we can conduct any review as we deem necessary. You warrant that you will provide reasonable assistance to us in investigating any complaints made by customers;

        11.   You will not publish, circulate, issue or release, in any media, any advertisement, financial promotion or other literature relating to our mortgage products or make use of our name, logo or any of our intellectual property (any patent, copyright, registered design, design right, trademark or other industrial or intellectual property right whether register or not anywhere in the world) in any of their promotional activities without first receiving our written authorisation.

        12.  Where you conduct business through our websites, you agree that access to the websites will be governed by the terms of use provided by us.

        13.  Your company will be registered in the UK and you will only submit mortgage applications within the UK. We reserve the right at our sole discretion to decline all or any Applications and we are not required to give a reason for doing so.

        14.  We are not obliged to accept any application for a mortgage, or to offer a further mortgage to a customer at the end of the term of a mortgage product.

        15.  We may be required to report (MCOB regulated lending only) to the FCA and/or the PRA the basis on which business is conducted between you and the customer. You acknowledge and accept that we will treat business as being conducted on an “advised” basis unless you tell us otherwise when you submit the Application.

        16.  If we are not satisfied (acting reasonably) that you have complied with the applicable FCA rules, you shall allow us reasonable access to your offices, records (including extraction and copying facilities) and staff to investigate our concerns.

        17.  Nothing in these terms of registration is intended to, or shall be deemed to, establish any partnership or joint venture between you and us, constitute you the agent or representative of us or authorise you to enter into any commitments for and on behalf of us. You are not and may not purport or hold yourself out to be our agent unless specifically authorised in writing by us. You will not sign or amend any documents or policies on our behalf nor make any statements or promises or representations of any kind whether written or oral which bind or purport to bind us. You will not hold yourself out as having authority to make any such representation.

        18.  Any commission due to you from us in respect of any application will be paid to the operator of the network/club nominated by you in the application and we will not enter into any discussion or correspondence with you regarding the payment of any fees which may be due to it. No payment shall be due to you from us under these terms of registration. These terms of registration will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. You will comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including (but not limited to):

        19.  The FCA’s Principle for Business and in particular the Mortgages and Home Finance: Conduct of Business sourcebook (MCOB), Consumer Duty, guidance for Treating Customers Fairly and Conduct Risk and all other relevant parts of the FCA’s Handbook of Rules and Guidance;

·       the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and the Bribery Act 2010; and

·       the Data Protection Act 2018, (All as amended or replaced from time to time).

Your Duties

        1.      You warrant and represent that you will obtain the Customer’s authorisation to be their agent prior to submitting an Application to us and you acknowledge that you may not submit Applications without such authorisation from the customer;

        2.      Hold all relevant legal, regulatory, and other authorisations necessary for carrying out your business and for referring Applications to us;

        3.      Will conduct your business in accordance with the requirements of all relevant laws, regulations and rules of the FCA and or PRA including without limit the FCA and/or PRA handbooks (and all regulations made thereunder) and any applicable guidance issued by the FCA and/or PRA from time to time and will not by your acts or omission do anything to cause us to be in breach of the same or to cause an unfair relationship pursuant to Section 140A of the Consumer Credit Act to arise;

        4.      Will comply with all applicable codes of practice;

        5.      Will act diligently and in good faith in all your dealings with us and the customers; and (without limiting the foregoing) have disclosed to each customer all payments;

        6.      You will receive from us in respect of that customer’s Application and obtained the customer’s informed consent to such payments;

        7.      You will comply in full with all policies and procedures relating to Applications as we advise you of from time to time, and will only submit Applications in accordance with said policies and procedures and will attend and complete any training on the same as required by us from time to time;

        8.      During completion of an Application, you will make the customer aware of all declarations and statements that you make on your behalf and explain key information throughout the Application that will affect the customer. You will provide the customer with a copy of our Customer Privacy Notice when you first capture his or her personal data with a view to sharing it with us and you will explain in particular with reference to our Customer Privacy Notice about our use of their personal data and the effects of credit scoring and credit checks which may be undertaken by Us in order to process an Application;

        9.      You will maintain the confidentiality of any username and password used by you in our system;

        10.  Act honestly and professionally and to use all due skill and care when acting for the customer, including (but not limited to) ensuring that the Application is suitable for the customer in cases where you advise on the same;

        11.  Use best endeavours to ensure that information provided to us is true, accurate and complete in all material respects;

        12.  Keep all details of customers up to date.

·       You agree to inform us immediately in writing if: You cease to act on behalf of a customer;

·       Any of your authorisations, registrations or permissions needed to conduct all or part of your business lawfully are not current or are believed to be in jeopardy or if you are the subject of any enforcement action by the FCA and/or PRA;

·       You become aware of any unauthorised use of any username or password;

·       You become aware or believe that any information provided in or as part of an Application is or may become untrue or incomplete or inaccurate including without limitation having regard to the Data Protection laws and regulations; or

·       You commit a material breach of any relevant laws or regulations or these Terms including without limitation the Data Protection laws and regulations

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION

        1.      You will not divulge to any third party any documents or materials of any kind containing information we have identified as confidential information or which relates to our business or affairs or those of any of our subsidiaries or affiliates or associated companies;

        2.      Some or all of the information supplied to us in connection with an Application will comprise Personal Data (as defined by the Data Protection laws and regulations);

        3.      Where it is required, in connection with these Terms that we are relying on consent, you will obtain the client’s consent to such use of their personal data (including without limitation if they wish to consent to receiving direct marketing communications);

        4.      For the avoidance of doubt, we will use personal data supplied to us by or on behalf of a client for the purposes detailed in our Customer Privacy Notice;

        5.      We and you confirm to each other that we are listed on the ICO Register and each agrees at all times to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection laws and regulations. You will not by your act or omission cause Us to be in breach of the Data Protection laws and regulations;

        6.      You acknowledge and agree that you are our Data Processor when you input personal data about any client into our mortgage portal and otherwise use our mortgage portal including but not limited to when you update data fields for accuracy upon notice from the client of a change in his details and accordingly when processing the personal data for the aforementioned purposes: For details of how and why personal data is processed in relation to clients that you submit through the mortgage portal please refer to our Customer Privacy Notice (https://www.ecology.co.uk/privacy-notice/).

Termination

        1.      Either party may terminate the agreement on these Terms by giving one month’s notice to the other;

        2.      Any termination by us shall be without prejudice to any other remedies that we may be able to pursue against you, including in respect of accrued rights;

        3.      Upon termination, you will not proceed any further with any Application and shall cease all promotion of our business or the Mortgage Products; return to Us as soon as reasonably practicable any property belonging to us and be entitled to any unpaid Payments accrued to the date of termination but shall forfeit entitlement to all other Payments falling due after the date of termination;

        4.      We may terminate the agreement on these Terms with immediate effect on the occurrence of any one or more of the following:

        ·       Any material breach by you or any person or body for which you are responsible of any of the provisions contained within these Terms;

        ·       Any misconduct by you, any of your directors or partners, or any person or body for which you are responsible which is or could be reasonably viewed as prejudicial to our business or reputation; 

        ·       You cease to be appropriately authorised, of the FCA or PRA impose any fine or penalty upon you; cessation or suspension or intended cessation or suspension of your operation or in any circumstance where in our reasonable opinion it is likely to affect materially your ability to perform;

        ·       Your obligations under these Terms; or material litigation, insolvency, or reconstruction involving you (including any of your partners if you are a partnership) including (without limitation) bankruptcy, dissolution, sequestration, administration, winding up, or seizure of assets or entry into any arrangement or composition with creditors.