Mortgage Strategy
18 January 2010
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60 Seconds with.....David Tweedy
18 January 2010
David Tweed, Managing director, Platform home loans
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A&L for Intermediaries has lowered its rates
18 January 2010
Alliance & Leicester for Intermediaries has lowered fixed and variable rates across its mortgage range and launched a two-year broker exclusive tracker deal at 4.39% up to 80% LTV.
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AR jitters
18 January 2010
Recent network failures have focussed appointed representatives’ attention on the importance of scrutinising potential partners before signing on the line
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Aviva signs up 5,000 to financial adviser scheme
18 January 2010
Aviva’s Financial Adviser Academy, which promotes financial advice and training support for advisers, has signed up 5,000 members since its launch in March 2008.
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AVM specialist wins Santander contract
18 January 2010
Hometrack Data Systems, a supplier of automated valuations, has been awarded the contract to supply the Santander group with valuation and risk information.
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Brokers can cash in on the trend for cross-selling
18 January 2010
Consumers like to have their financial products in one place and brokers could help lenders facilitate this
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Brokers could win from hike in SVRs
18 January 2010
ALAN CLEARY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXACT
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CAN YOU HAVE A POP TO WIN THIS POSH MONTBLANC ROLLERBALL PEN?
18 January 2010
Financial services PR guru Richard Hurst goes mountain biking in his local area
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CHARITY BEAT
18 January 2010
DIGGING THE DIRT IN THE MORTGAGE WORLD…
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Checkmate Mortgages could be in business by summer
18 January 2010
Rumours are rife that Checkmate Mortgages could launch as early as Q2 2010.Industry sources say Stephen Knight, executive chairman of Checkmate and former chairman of GMAC-RFC UK, is preparing to launch his lender later this year after securing sufficient funding from one of its backers, global private bank Rothschild.It is not yet clear if Checkmate has obtained a banking licence from the Financial Services Authority.Last September Knight told Mortgage ...
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Director at insurance brokerage is banned
18 January 2010
The Financial Services Authority has banned Stephen Allen, director at insurance brokerage Fabien Risk Services, for failing in his duties.
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Don't overlook the MPPI opportunity
18 January 2010
JAMES WATSON, SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR, PAYMENTSHIELD
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Don't settle for just one rent-back firm
18 January 2010
DANIEL LOWERSON, PARTNER, DFB HOUSING SOLUTIONS
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Employee of the month
18 January 2010
Employee of the month, Paul McCarthy
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Experts can help you weather the storms
18 January 2010
RICHARD SEXTON, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, E.SURV
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Fewer fixed rate deals taken out in Q4 2009
18 January 2010
Fewer fixed rate deals were taken out between October and December last year compared with the previous three months, research from Paragon Mortgages reveals.
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FLUFFING IT
18 January 2010
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FSA bans London broker for being unfit to run a firm
18 January 2010
The Financial Services Authority has removed the approval of London-based mortgage broker Olayinka Oladipupo for not being a fit and proper person to run an authorised firm.The permission of Trinity Network Services, of which Oladipupo was principal and controller, has also been cancelled.In November and December 2008 during an FSA investigation into his conduct Oladipupo failed to attend a compulsory interview and provide the FSA with requested documents and ...
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FSA gets tough chasing unpaid fees
18 January 2010
The Financial Services Authority has hired collection agency Debt Collections to chase a former mortgage broker for unpaid fees.David Crane, who traded as David Crane Mortgage Broker, closed his business in 2008 because of the deteriorating market.Crane received a letter from Debt Collections Limited at the start of January, giving him five days to pay £2,705.97.Crane says he cannot afford to pay the debt because he was unemployed for a time after ...
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Great FSA staff get a bonus - because they're worth it
18 January 2010
I was interested to read the news last week that staff at the FSA would receive no pay rise and that their bonuses would be frozen at the same rate as last year - 15% of the total salary pot.This is perfectly dreadful news for the hard working employees at the regulator - no pay rise and a miserly 15% bonus.Of course, I realise that many ordinary professionals have had to endure their salaries being cut and a good number have simply lost their jobs in the past ...
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Halifax Estate Agency deal adds 130 to adviser market
18 January 2010
LSL Property Services has com-pleted its acquisition of Halifax Estate Agency in a deal that involves the transfer of 130 advisers to the broker market.Lloyds Banking Group agreed to sell its estate agency arm to LSL for £1 in October 2009. The acquisition formally completed on January 15.The 218 Halifax Estate Agency branches will become part of the LSL group alongside e.surv, Your Move, Reeds Rains and Intercounty.For three months Abbey for Intermediaries ...
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Harness the power of lead generation
18 January 2010
JUSTIN REES, HEAD OF MARKETING, LEADPOINT UK
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Housing bubble not down to big banks
18 January 2010
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If Mortgage Times had been closed I could have moved
18 January 2010
I am a former appointed representative of The Mortgage Times Group. Since the end of September 2009 I have been owed £3,500 by the network, £2,000 of which has been owed since last May. I was promised payment by the directors and the commissions department.As with other ARs, the threat used against me was that if I moved on the firm would hold commission for a minimum of three months.I’d like someone to explain to me why, after Revenue & Customs wanted to liquidate ...
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in my opinion
18 January 2010
Communicating your company’s values effectively to potential customers is important, especially if you are thinking of moving towards the fee-charging model I outlined last week
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Interest payments most affordable for five years
18 January 2010
Home owners now need less of their income to cover their mortgage interest payments than at any time in the past five years.Latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that home movers needed just 10.6% of gross income last November to cover mortgage interest payments, down from 11.1% in October.With the exception of a brief low in 1996 this is the lowest burden on owners since 1974 when the CML started recording the data.The first-time ...
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IT investment can be cash well spent
18 January 2010
IAN MERRIMAN, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, INTELLIFLO
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It's hard to believe a big firm wanted to buy into network
18 January 2010
There were some rather strange letters regarding The Mortgage Times Group situation in last week’s Mortgage Strategy.I won’t comment on AC Financial Service’s Abu Choudhury encouraging others to join the network he had been a member for just over a month because it is friendly, helpful and honest, other than to say that Mortgage Times was once like that too.But I wish everyone the best with whichever network they choose - I’d like to think we have seen the last ...
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Landlords foresee a brighter tomorrow
18 January 2010
BOB YOUNG, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CAPITAL HOME LOANS
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LAST WEEK’S WINNER
18 January 2010
MARK BELL-BERRY, CHALFONT INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS
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Lenders must shape up to aid recovery
18 January 2010
ALISON BEECH, BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP DIRECTOR, SPICERHAART
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Listen, learn and increase business
18 January 2010
JEFF KNIGHT, CONSULTANT, TONIC MARKETING SOLUTIONS
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Lloyds group's Daniels denies he was tricked into buying HBOS
18 January 2010
Eric Daniels: A difficult question
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Market investment head moves on from UKFI
18 January 2010
John Crompton, head of market investments at UK Financial Investments, has resigned from the firm.
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Market watch 18/01/10
18 January 2010
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Media Spotlight: The Rules Of Work
18 January 2010
The Rules Of Work, By Richard Templar
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Mortgage holders put it on plastic
18 January 2010
More than a million people used credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent in the past year, according to an estimate included in a survey for homelessness charity Shelter.Conducted by YouGov the survey asked some 2,000 adults whether they had used a credit card to pay their rent or mortgage in the past 12 months.Some 6% of those liable for rent or mortgage payments used their credit cards to pay housing costs. Shelter calculates that this reflects a national ...
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Mortgage sector accounts for 18% of all UK fraud
18 January 2010
Mortgage fraud accounted for 18% of all reported fraud in 2009, and 27% of all fraud in the finance and insurance sector, according to research by BDO Stoy Hayward.Accountancy firm BDO, which also has one of the country’s largest teams of specialist fraud investigators, says fraud in the UK broke through the £2bn barrier for the first time last year.In keeping with its poor reput-ation the financial sector went from bad to worse, recording a 70% increase ...
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Mortgage Times bosses launch finance venture
18 January 2010
The Mortgage Times Group directors Chris May and Paul Carmody have established a financial planning and asset management firm, Mortgage Strategy can reveal.
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Natalie Ceeney named as chief ombudsman
18 January 2010
The board of the Financial Ombudsman Service has appointed Natalie Ceeney as chief ombudsman and chief executive. Ceeney succeeds Walter Merricks who stepped down last October.
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Network model is still valid
18 January 2010
The news that two directors of The Mortgage Times Group have already set up another company is the latest twist in a network drama that has swiftly gone from tragedy to comedy. Sadly, there have been few laughs for the appointed representatives of Mortgage Times who had to wait until last week for the news that the firm had finally applied to go into administration.And there has still been no official announcement about the administration - the firm’s legal representative ...
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Nurturing signs of life in securitisation
18 January 2010
STEPHEN JOHNSON, SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR, COMMERCIAL FIRST MORTGAGES
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Overflow deal does not affect leads via our site
18 January 2010
I would like to apologise that the press release we sent out last week announcing the new arrangement between Moneysupermarket.com and London & Country was not explicit enough in explaining the relationship between the two firms.I can reassure brokers that this deal does not affect Moneysupermarket.com leads in any way. In fact, we have been trialling an arrangement for a few months whereby London & Country takes our overflow calls, but have now turned this into ...
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Paaleads says London & Country deal will not compromise service
18 January 2010
David Hollingworth, Our services will dovetail
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Paul Muolo: What’s going on across the Pond
18 January 2010
Hoping for an upturn in job prospects
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Rate of increase slows in December
18 January 2010
The rate at which house prices are increasing slowed during December, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.Some 30% more surveyors reported an increase rather than a decline in house prices during the month in RICS’ latest housing market survey compared with 35% in November.Surveyors in London, the South-East, the South-West and East Anglia continued to see price increases during the month whereas those in the North and the West Midlands ...
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RBS broker arm unveils deals including tracker
18 January 2010
Royal Bank of Scotland Intermediary Partners has introduced three deals including a two-year tracker at 2.69%. The tracker, at Bank of England base rate plus 2.19%, is available up to 60% LTV .
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Santander UK names banking chief
18 January 2010
Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, Promotion
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See the big picture when addressing your clients' needs
18 January 2010
Brokers who just focus on the mortgage aspect of deals may be failing to offer clients the best advice service
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Serious questions must be addressed in network probe
18 January 2010
The news that The Mortgage Times Group has made an application to go into administration is a welcome development. Let’s hope this move is accompanied by a serious investigation into what lay behind the network’s demise.Below are some important questions that have yet to be resolved about the affair.Why did the directors claim the company had been put into administration on December 21 2009 when it now transpires the first application for administration ...
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Snow truth in tales of Olympian rise in property values
18 January 2010
There are a lot of porkies about the weather, housing in the Olympic area and commuters buying in London
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Snowdon eyes mortgage openings for Aldermore
18 January 2010
Colin Snowdon, Spearheading mortgage move
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Solent launches Bank of China tracker products
18 January 2010
Hampshire-based Solent Mortgage Services has unveiled a range of lifetime tracker products from Bank of China (UK).Residential tracker rates are offered at 2.3% above the Bank of England base rate making them 2.8%, with a maximum LTV of 75%.For buy-to-let and commercial mortgages the lender is offering a deal at 3.5% above base rate, making it 4% currently.This product features lower arrangement and reduced valuation fees, and is available up to a ...
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Sourcing link designed to boost conversions
18 January 2010
A link-up between Leadbay and Orbiter will see Leadbay leads delivered straight to the Orbiter sourcing system in a move the two firms say will boost conversion rates.
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Trend to pay off debt with equity release income
18 January 2010
Dean Mirfin, Various uses for this money
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Uinsure gives brokers the chance to compete against online offers
18 January 2010
Simon Taylor, Deal offers flexibility
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Variety is vital to keep our sector in the best of health
18 January 2010
There’s a clear desire to lend more this year but the mortgage industry also needs a dose of fresh products
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Warn clients of the cost of Stamp Duty
18 January 2010
TIM JORDAN, HEAD OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY, FORSHAWS DAVIES RIDGWAY
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Yorkshire unveils fixed rate product at 3.19%
18 January 2010
The Yorkshire Building Society has launched a fixed rate mortgage at 3.19%, available online or through its branches. The one-year fixed deal is offered up to 75% LTV with a £195 fee.
