Countrywide loses its Mojo in mortgage brand name tussle

It’s not just the bosses’ pay incentives that have been a problem for Countrywide’s senior management - it appears the company has had difficulties in securing the right name for its online mortgage service.

In April the ailing agency group launched Dynamo, an online broker operating jointly with tech company Blenheim Chalcot; the service has been named by Countrywide’s group operations director Paul Creffield as one he is particularly proud of.

But now it appears the name Dynamo was a second choice and that instead Countrywide had been pipped at the post when registering the trademark of its first choice, Mojo. 

A rival online brokerage, Nuvo - which handles around 20,000 mortgages a month - got their first with registering Mojo and then rejected a bid by Countrywide to buy the trademark, Nuvo has now renamed itself Mojo.

The website Mortgage Introducer quotes Mojo chief executive Richard Hayes as saying: “Mojo Mortgages is a better reflection of our confidence and the way we want our customers to feel when we help them find and apply for a great mortgage deal.”

Jenny Watts, chief operating officer at Dynamo, tells the same publication: “Pre-launch we intended to call ourselves Mojo Mortgages. At the end of last year, it became clear that there was an issue with the trademark for Mojo as it was already owned by another organisation. We rebranded as Dynamo and launched to consumers in April this year.”