Mortgage Strategy
12 September 2011
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Media Spotlight: Back From The Brink
12 September 2011
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60 Seconds With...
12 September 2011
JOHN EASTGATE, SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR, SAFFRON BUILDING SOCIETY
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Abbey revamps its website to make navigation easier
12 September 2011
Abbey for Intermediaries has relaunched its website today with a different layout and design.
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Abbey unveils range of fixed rate products
12 September 2011
Abbey for Intermediaries has launched three, four and five-year fixed products and reduced rates by up to 1%. The latest range includes a three-year fix at 75% LTV for buyers and remortgagers at 3.85% with no fee.
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Bank of Scotland receives the most mortgage complaints for third year
12 September 2011
Bank of Scotland, which incorporates Halifax and BM Solutions, has topped the mortgage complaints list for the third year running.Figures released by the Financial Ombudsman Service last week show Bank of Scotland received 590 complaints relating to mortgages and home finance in the first six months of the year, with 47% upheld in favour of consumers.It has topped the list since 2009 when FOS first started to name and shame companies.FOS has seen ...
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Broker-exclusive deals from Northern Rock
12 September 2011
Northern Rock has launched a range of mortgages available exclusively via brokers, with rates from 2.59%. The deals include a two-year fix at 2.59% with a £995 fee up to 65% LTV and the same deal available up to 75% LTV with a rate of 2.77%.
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Brokers should keep eye on macro picture
12 September 2011
Landlord optimism is at its highest for almost four years. The National Landlord Association’s Landlord Optimism Index reveals around 65% of those questioned predicted the next three months would be good or very good.
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CAN YOU HAVE A POP TO WIN THIS BOTTLE OF MIGHTY FINE CHAMPAGNE?
12 September 2011
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Celebrating 10 years of Mortgage Expo
12 September 2011
It’s hard to believe but we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Mortgage Business Expo this year.
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Check out landlords who want to expand
12 September 2011
JOHN HERON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARAGON MORTGAGES
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CML says UKAR's customer checks are prudent move
12 September 2011
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has defended UK Asset Resolution’s decision to contact borrowers if changes in their financial profile suggest they may be at risk of falling into arrears.UKAR, the holding company for Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management, is contacting borrowers it believes could run into difficulties paying their mortgage and conducting credit checks on such consumers.The CML says the national media responded to the story ...
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Dragonfly suspends its relationship manager
12 September 2011
MARTIN GILSENAN - RUMOURED TO BE JOINING OMNI
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Economic Tracker: September 2011
12 September 2011
Our monthly economic tracker provides data and expert commentary on the health of the housing market
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Equity release can boost annuity funds
12 September 2011
Recent market turmoil has again raised the debate over pension funds and the value available for the purchase of an annuity.
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Firms will go bust if banks do not lend
12 September 2011
Normally the number 180 is only of interest to darts enthusiasts. But 180 cropped up recently and it wasn’t associated with 20 pints of mild and pork scratchings.
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FSA gets tough on unregulated rent-back deals
12 September 2011
The Financial Services Authority is planning to regulate all firms and individuals selling sale-and-rent-back agreements.Currently firms are only regulated if rent-back is their main business.
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Gross lending at Welsh mutual goes up by 17%
12 September 2011
Monmouthshire Building Society boosted its gross mortgage lending by 17%, in the year to April 2011. The Welsh society lent £105m, up from £90m for the previous year. It says this has led to a net rise in the value of its mortgage assets of £41m, taking the total to £550m.
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Guarantee is irrelevant for pricing of 100% LTV deal, says Aldermore
12 September 2011
CHARLES HARESNAPE - HIGHER CAPITAL IS NEEDED
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Halting life cover sales could lead to layoffs at Y3S
12 September 2011
Specialist broker Y3S Group could make a number of redundancies in its life insurance department.Matt Cottle, director of Y3S Group, says 24 staff are in consultation, 19 of whom have been redeployed into other Y3S companies.Cottle says it has yet to make a decision regarding the remaining five, but expects to do so in the next few days.He adds: “We are no longer selling life insurance and instead increasing our staff numbers in our loan and bridging ...
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In my opinion: Property still a good long-term investment
12 September 2011
While not wanting to make another house price prediction, here are a few thoughts arising from recent data.
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Job losses on the cards as Xit2 plans relocation to Kent
12 September 2011
Xit2 plans to relocate its head office from Oxford to Kent, which will result in redundancies at the firm.The mortgage and property outsourcing specialist was acquired by Decision Insight Information Group in January 2011. Xit2 is moving its base from Charlbury to DIIG’s European headquarters in Kent.Mark Blackwell, managing director of xit2, says the move makes commercial sense as the lease is due to expire on its Charlbury offices.He says: “The ...
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L&C heads for profit this year after fall in 2010 loss
12 September 2011
DAVID HOLLINGWORTH - WE IMPROVED OUR PROCESSES
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LAST WEEK’S WINNER
12 September 2011
“Danny and Peter clasped their balls but didn’t realise they were for everyone to play with.”TONY CASTLEPREMIER MORTGAGES & PROTECTION
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Lenders must know their risk exposure
12 September 2011
The recent Financial Services Authority consultation paper on forbearance and impairment provisions in relation to mortgages has attracted a vast amount of comment on how it could lead to greater clarification on the issue of forbearance for lenders.
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Lending will suffer as banks face painful liquidity requirements
12 September 2011
New regulatory restraints on banks’ liquidity will force them to scale back lending that requires high levels of capital and increase interest rates on loans, according to JPMorgan.
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Low rates and high profits breed optimism
12 September 2011
Last month mortgage bankers and much of the nation were pretty steamed at Congress and the White House for fiddling around on a budget ceiling deal.
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Marketwatch
12 September 2011
Saffron and Aldermore have spotted gaps in the market and come up with innovative products for first-time buyers, which is great. The same can’t be said for buy-to-let where rates and fee choices are limited
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More deals for brokers in August
12 September 2011
The number of mortgage products available to intermediaries reached 13,842 in August, a 2% increase compared with July.This takes the rise in product numbers over the past six months to 40%, according to Mortgage Brain’s monthly product analysis.Variable rate product numbers dropped slightly, by 1.5% to 1,724 its first fall for three months.Meanwhile, the number of fixed rate mortgages increased by 3%, or 258 products, to reach 8,273, while trackers ...
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MS Leader: The realities of near-prime
12 September 2011
An increasing number of lenders have come to the market over the past year with products for borrowers with impaired credit.
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Nationwide joins campaign to teach kids about finance
12 September 2011
Nationwide has thrown its weight behind a campaign to make financial education a compulsory part of the national curriculum.The building society is encouraging members to sign a government e-petition created by Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert. com, which says children should learn about personal finance at school.In an initiative launched earlier this year, the government promised to consider e-petitions that gain 100,000 signatures for debate in the ...
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NBNK eyes Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks
12 September 2011
New banking venture NBNK is looking to acquire Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks to use as a platform to buy the branches Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to sell.
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Near-prime time
12 September 2011
Near-prime is a growing niche which can offer borrowers locked out of the mainstream market a helping hand. But take-up of these products has been low so we ask the experts to shed some light on the sector
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No reason why Aldermore deal should have high rate
12 September 2011
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Parents need cover for student homes
12 September 2011
Accommodation in universities is always in demand, but this year requirements are so great that students at Ormskirk’s Edge Hill University in Merseyside have reportedly been shown around Pontins holiday camp as a place to live as the need for student halls has risen so sharply.
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Rooftop reaps the benefits of low three-month LIBOR as arrears fall
12 September 2011
Low three-month LIBOR is behind a significant decrease in Rooftop Mortgages’ arrears, according to Fitch Ratings.A report from the ratings agency shows that the arrears levels of Mansard Mortgages, a series of non-conforming residential mortgage-backed securities originated by Rooftop, have almost halved since their peak.Fitch says: “The arrears in this series have stabilised as all the loans are linked to the three-month LIBOR rate and are benefiting from the ...
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Swift's unfair client fees result in a £630,000 fine
12 September 2011
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Talk to clients about the benefits of offset
12 September 2011
Many questions have been thrown up by the low interest rate environment but arguably the most important one for brokers is how clients can benefit from it.
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The Mortgage Mole
12 September 2011
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Toxic mortgage bond sales to be probed
12 Sep 2011
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating potentially fraudulent sales of mortgage-backed securities in the UK in the run-up to the financial crisis.The probe comes after it emerged that US regulator Federal Housing Finance Agency is filing lawsuits against 17 banks for their role in the sale of toxic mortgage bonds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2005 and 2007.The Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays are among the banks involved.A spokeswoman ...
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UK can learn from foreign housing models
12 September 2011
How did it come to this? How did the British housing landscape get to its current state?
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Week in NUMBERS
12 September 2011
£43bn - The amount savers have lost in interest since the base rate was cut to 0.5%, according to Bank of England data.
