Two different tools for different problems
Assesr and Knowledge Bank both operate in the UK property finance space, but they solve fundamentally different problems. Understanding the distinction is important because choosing the wrong tool means either doing more manual work than necessary or missing capabilities you actually need.
Knowledge Bank is a criteria search engine. It tells mortgage brokers and intermediaries which lenders will accept a particular case based on published lending criteria — across all mortgage types, not just development finance.
Assesr is an AI-powered development finance marketplace. It generates credit papers from uploaded documents, matches deals to specialist lenders, facilitates the submission and response process, and charges only on successful drawdown.
What Knowledge Bank does well
Knowledge Bank has been operating since 2014 and has built the most comprehensive criteria database in UK mortgage intermediation. With 140,000+ individual criteria from 260+ lenders across 8 lending areas, it's an invaluable research tool for brokers who need to quickly determine which lenders will consider a case.
- Breadth of coverage: Covers residential mortgages, buy-to-let, bridging, commercial, development, and more — not just development finance.
- Criteria depth: 140,000+ data points maintained by the lenders themselves, ensuring accuracy.
- Compliance value: Generates FCA Evidence of Research documentation, which regulated brokers need for their files.
- Affordable pricing: At £19.99+VAT/month, it's one of the cheapest professional tools available to brokers.
- KB Assist: AI-powered natural language search that lets brokers ask questions in plain English rather than navigating filter menus.
Where Knowledge Bank falls short for development finance
Knowledge Bank's limitations become apparent when you need to do more than search criteria:
- No credit paper generation. Knowledge Bank tells you which lenders will consider your deal — but you still need to write the credit paper yourself. For development finance, this is the most time-consuming part of the process.
- No deal submission. It's a research tool, not a transaction platform. You can't submit deals through Knowledge Bank or receive lender offers through it.
- No document analysis. There's no AI extraction of data from uploaded documents. Every piece of information must be entered manually into search filters.
- Broker-only access. Borrowers cannot use Knowledge Bank. If you're a developer wanting to manage your own finance, it's not an option.
- Criteria only, not appetite. Knowledge Bank shows published criteria — whether a lender will theoretically accept a case. It doesn't show whether a lender is actively seeking that type of deal right now, which is often more important than the criteria alone.
How Assesr compares
Assesr takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of helping you research which lenders might accept your deal, it takes your deal from document upload through to lender offers:
- AI credit paper generation: Upload documents and receive a 10-section institutional-grade credit paper in 60 seconds — complete with sensitivity analysis, risk grading, and comparable benchmarking.
- Automated lender matching: Deals are matched to 50+ specialist development finance lenders based on their current mandates, not just published criteria.
- Direct borrower access: Developers can submit deals themselves without needing a broker intermediary.
- End-to-end process: From document upload to lender offer in hours, with structured responses and fixed timelines.
- Pay-on-success pricing: 0.5% on drawdown only — nothing upfront, nothing if the deal doesn't complete.
When to use which
Use Knowledge Bank if you're a mortgage broker who handles multiple lending types (not just development finance) and needs a quick criteria-check tool across the whole market. At £20/month, it's cheap insurance against missing a lender or failing to document your research.
Use Assesr if you have a development finance deal and want to go from documents to lender offers as quickly and cheaply as possible. Whether you're a borrower submitting directly or a professional referring deals, Assesr handles the credit paper, lender matching, and submission process that Knowledge Bank doesn't touch.
The two tools are complementary rather than competing — a broker could use Knowledge Bank for initial research and Assesr for the actual deal packaging and submission. But for borrowers who don't need the criteria database, Assesr is the complete solution.