Mortgage Strategy
23 September 2002
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100 days to qualification deadline
25 Sep 2002
Time is running out for mortgage advisers to gain the required professional qualification, the Mortgage Code Compliance Board warned yesterday. With just 100 days to go, those failing to qualify will no longer be able to advise on mortgages unless under supervision of a competent and qualified adviser. Despite being encouraged by the fact that thousands of the remaining non-qualified advisers have registered to take their exams in the next few weeks, the Mortgage Board ...
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Abbey National revamps mortgage range
26 Sep 2002
Abbey National has revised its mortgage range, with a new portfolio reflecting current market conditions. The changes also follow the recent Ombudsman ruling on an Abbey National mortgage case, after which the bank withdrew its Classic base rate tracker. The new range includes re-designed mortgage products for first time buyers and remortgagers. Customers have the option to revert to Abbey National's SVR at the end of the benefit period or fully flexible mortgages ...
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ABBEY TO SELL FIRST NATIONAL
24 Sep 2002
Speculation is rife in the City that Abbey National has put First National, its consumer credit arm, up for sale for an estimated £800m. This is being seen as a move to reassure the stock market and return to core roles of saving and lending after a disastrous year. Abbey is believed to have appointed Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, to handle the sale. Potential bidders include Barclays, Lloyds TSB and GE Capital. Abbey bought First National in ...
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ARLA launches index of buy-to-let returns
23 Sep 2002
The Association of Residential Letting Agents has launched a quarterly index of buy-to-let returns. The index provides national and regional figures and is calculated in two ways. The first is based on the initial total cost of investment for a rental property investment without mortgaging. The second shows the return on an initial cash investment of 25% of the value of an investment property with the remainder financed with a mortgage. The first ARLA indices of rental ...
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Berkeley Morgan Group reports strong profits
25 Sep 2002
Annual results for the OFEX traded insurance and financial services provider, Berkeley Morgan Group PLC, show a 37% rise in pre-tax profits to £1.2 million (2001 £866,000). Revenues for the year to 30 April 30 2002 also increased by 13% to £16 million (£14 million in 2001). Chairman and managing director Jon Pardoe says : "We have met our three operational goals of increased turnover, increased margins, and decreased overheads. This has ...
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Bristol & West Mortgages to launch new standard range
27 Sep 2002
Bristol & West Mortgages launches its new standard mortgage range on Monday September 30. The range includes: 4.99% two-year tracker Easyflex Fees Assisted Cashback Mortgage equal to base +0.99% until December 31 2004. This is a product for first-time buyers or remortgage customers as Bristol & West Mortgages pays for the arrangement fees, valuation fees and MIG. The maximum LTV is 90%, with no extended tie in, flexible options and £300 cashback. This mortgage ...
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Britons losing £1.2bn a year languishing in uncompetitive deals
24 Sep 2002
The MarketPlace at Bradford & Bingley launches new innovative online personal loans service that does the shopping around for you. Consumers are losing more than £1.2bn a year by not shopping around for the most competitive personal loan according to research from The MarketPlace at Bradford & Bingley. 43% of people asked where they would go to arrange a loan claim they would simply visit their bank or building society, even though they may not be the most competitive Only
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BSA chief hails mutuality at Lib Dem party conference
25 Sep 2002
Delegates at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference were last night told of how the management of public services and promote public-private partnerships could benefit from the mutual approach of running a business. Addressing delegates at a fringe event at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton last night, Graham Stow, chairman of the Building Societies Association, explained how public services providers could learn from the mutual model in delivering public services. The ...
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Buy-to-let show attracts over 7,000
27 Sep 2002
The UK's first ever Property Investor Show attracted 7, 619 visitors last weekend to the ExCeL exhibition centre in London's Docklands. Millions more pounds of investment will be injected into the buy-to-let sector as business agreed at the show comes through. London-based developers such as Greenwich Millennium Village reported brisk sales of one-bedroom apartments for letting, and Copthorn Homes which won the "Best Stand" award reported substantial off-plan sales of ...
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CA and Which? to reveal "shocking" new endowment figures
24 Sep 2002
The Consumers' Association and Which? will this week launch an 'endowmentaction' campaign with new findings on the scale of the endowment scandal The campaign, to be revealed this Thursday, will reveal shocking new findings on the potential scale of the endowment crisis. Sheila McKechnie, director, Consumers' Association, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
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CA to help mis-sold endowment millions
27 Sep 2002
The Consumers' Association says that as many as five million consumers with an endowment mortgage, who may have been mis-sold, could be missing out on financial compensation. New research by the Consumers' Association and Which? found that 61% of consumers with an endowment mortgage were told that their endowment 'would definitely' or 'was guaranteed' to pay off their mortgage. The CA has launched a new campaign to help people who think they may have ...
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Deadline for electronic self-assessment returns extended
24 Sep 2002
After 4th October 2002, the self-assessment system will be enhanced so that tax underpayments of less than £2000 may be automatically collected through the PAYE code for the tax year 2003/2004. This enhancement means that we can extend the dates by which a tax return sent electronically needs to be submitted to the Inland Revenue in these types of cases. The new extended dates for automatically coding out underpayments are: New date Electronic method for ...
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Derbyshire cuts discount rates
23 Sep 2002
Derbyshire Building Society has reduced its rates on three-year and five-year discountmortgages. From Monday 23 September, borrowers can obtain a three-year discount rate from as low as 3.69% - 2% off the society's SVR. The three-year discount rate, up to 80% LTV, is 3.69%, between 80% and 90% LTV it is 3.89%, and up to 95% LTV the rate is 4.09%. A five-year discount rate, up to 80% LTV, is 3.99%. Between 80% and 90% LTV it is 4.09% and 4.24% up to 95% LTV. Other ...
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Director level appointments at FSA
23 Sep 2002
Anna Bradley, currently director of the National Consumer Council, has been appointed director of consumer affairs reporting to FSA managing director John Tiner. The Consumer Division leads the work of the FSA to promote public understanding of the financial system and on consumer protection, including managing the FSA's relationship with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service. She will join the FSA at the end of this year. David ...
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Dreamflights takes off with £3,000 from Platform
23 Sep 2002
Platform Home Loans has raised £3,000 for Dreamflights - a charity supported by Solent Mortgage Services that sends seriously ill children on a holiday of a lifetime in Orlando. Florida. The money was raised at Platform's annual corporate golf event held in Le Touquet, France, which took place on the July 3-4. Players were asked to report on each other's indiscretions and misdemeanours while playing their rounds. Donations were made in the form of fines for incidents ...
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Egg plays down possiblity of a debt crisis
23 Sep 2002
August house price surveys from Halifax and Nationwide show the average price paid for a home in the UK is now well over £110,000 - around 20% higher than only 12 months earlier. But research for the internet bank Egg suggests the UK is still a long way from a debt crisis. The Halifax numbers suggest house price inflation maybe beginning to ease - a view not supported by the Nationwide's results. The recent hike in property values has left buyers ...
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Fall in value of mortgages indicates housing slowdown
27 Sep 2002
Further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market emerged yesterday as figures revealed a 15% drop in the total value of mortgages approved during August. The British Bankers' Association said 213,300 new home loans worth £13.11bn were approved by the major banks during August. That is 10% less by number and 15% lower in value than those approved during July. It added that the value of the average loan for house purchase also fell for the second month running, ...
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FSA makes three senior appointments
24 Sep 2002
The FSA Board yesterday announced three appointments at director level. Anna Bradley, currently director of the National Consumer Council, has been appointed director of consumer affairs reporting to FSA managing director John Tiner. The Consumer Division leads the work of the FSA to promote public understanding of the financial system and on consumer protection, including managing the FSA's relationship with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman ...
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Genesis launches new tracker rates
25 Sep 2002
Genesis Home Loans has launched new tracker rates for its "Prospector" buy-to-let mortgage product. A current pay rate of 4.76% - three month LIBOR + 0.75% for the term of the loan - is available on loans up to 75% LTV, while a rate of 3 month LIBOR + 1.15% - giving a current pay rate of 5.16% - applies to loans up to 85% LTV. An unlimited number of loans is permissible for purchase or remortgage from £25,001 up to £1m per borrower and reducing redemption ...
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Government welcomes ABI statement on flood insurance
27 Sep 2002
Floods Minister Elliot Morley yesterday welcomed a statement from the Association of British Insurers that its members would continue to provide flood insurance for the vast majority of homes and businesses on the floodplain. Mr Morley said he was pleased that the insurance industry had taken into account the increased investment and amount of hard work the Government was putting into immediate and long term flood and coastal defence. And he said the Government was ...
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Halifax stands by flood risk customers
24 Sep 2002
The Halifax has announced it will continue to provide flood risk insurance for 1.8m homeowner customers even though the flooding agreement between the Government and the insurance industry concludes at the end of this year. Halifax is the first major lender to make the commitment, which applies to existing Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Intelligent Finance mortgage customers holding their buildings or contents insurance with the group. The commitment remains in place until at least ...
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HBOS increases its current account market share target
27 Sep 2002
HBOS has launched a three-pronged attack on the Big Four Banks in their traditional stronghold, the UK current account market. HBOS also says it will increase its share of the UK current account market from 12% today to over 15% within three years. Since January 2001, over 1.6 million customers have opened HBOS current accounts, with the group taking a 25% share of all new current accounts in the first half of 2002. From January 2003, based on the current bank base rate, ...
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House price inflation continues to fall
24 Sep 2002
House price inflation has dropped to an average of 0.6% this September, continuing the trend of weakening inflation since May's high of 2.6%. Despite the decrease, in its latest survey of the housing market, Hometrack's national survey revealed that, with the exception of Central London, average prices continue to rise across all counties. Market activity in September is believed to have been affected by the quieter holiday season but this lowering inflation also ...
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Huge surge in millionaire properties
23 Sep 2002
The number of properties sold for over £1 million in England and Wales has increased almost eleven-fold since 1995, says the Halifax. During 2001, 2,434 properties valued at over £1m were sold compared with only 232 in 1995. Then, properties over £1m only accounted for 0.03% of all property sales. For the second quarter of 2002 that figure has risen to 0.24% of all property sales. The average UK house price broke through the £100,000 barrier ...
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Insurers continue to cover flood risk homes
27 Sep 2002
Insurers will continue to provide cover to the majority of homes in flood risk areas beyond the end of this year. The Association of British Insurers said its members, which account for 97% of all business underwritten in the UK, would continue to provide "a competitive market for insurance for the vast majority of homeowners and small businesses". But it added it could not guarantee that cover would be offered for all properties and that premiums would reflect the ...
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Intelligent Finance moves to reduce cost of borrowing
27 Sep 2002
Intelligent Finance is extending its reduced personal loan rate offer on its 'Intelligent Loan' - introduced to coincide with the September 1 new car registration - until October 6. Following the end of this limited offer period, Intelligent Finance has decided to offer customers continued lower borrowing costs by reducing the normal rate on its 'Intelligent Loan' from 8.99% to 8.39%. This will coincide with the introduction of Intelligent Finance's new authorised ...
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Johnson quits igroup
23 Sep 2002
David Johnson, managing director of sales and marketing for igroup, has resigned from igroup. As Mortgage Strategy magazine exclusively revealed on September 16, Johnson will step down at the beginning of October. His resignation takes effect from 1 October 2002 when he leaves to "pursue his business interests elsewhere". igroup says these interests will not conflict with its own, and Johnson retains the role of consultant adviser. Johnson has been with igroup ...
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Leeds & Holbeck offer free legals on tracker deal
24 Sep 2002
Leeds & Holbeck is providing free in-house legal services to borrowers taking out its fee-free base rate tracker mortgage. The offer is available to customers who apply by October 18 2002. The deal guarantees to match Bank of England base rate plus 0.29% until November 1, 2004 - meaning the current pay rate would be 4.29%. Key features include: ? 95% LTV ? No MIG up to 90% LTV ? No compulsory insurance ? No extended lock-ins ? ...
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Life company warns of potential equity release mis-selling disaster
26 Sep 2002
A major life company has called for full regulation of equity release products to avert disaster in the home income product market. Britannic Retirement Solutions, a key player in the specialist retirement arena, yesterday called on the government for full regulation of the potential multi-billion pound equity release/home income plan industry. The UK Equity release market is currently estimated at £750m - a fraction of the potential market of £459.1bn which ...
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London & County offers help to end 'endowment nightmare'
26 Sep 2002
National mortgage brokers London & County are advising victims of endowment mortgage mis-selling to repay predicted shortfalls on a capital and interest basis. By paying off the shortfall in this way over the remaining term of the mortgage, competitive mortgage deals could mean they are able to reduce monthly costs. London & County's endowment shortfall calculator determines the mortgage rate needed to put the shortfall amount onto a capital and interest basis over ...
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Misys convention explores future of financial advice
26 Sep 2002
Misys networks 2002 convention for its IFA Members will explore the future shape and focus of face to face financial advice. Misys expects 400 advisers to attend the 'Tomorrow's World' convention, held at Celtic Manor, Newport on November 29, which will look at the key issue of depolarisation and future distribution scenarios. To mark the event, Misys has assembled a series of high profile industry speakers from FSA, AIFA, and major product providers for a series ...
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Mortgage Next launch exclusive Bristol & West discount
24 Sep 2002
Mortgage Next has launched a new mortgage funded by Bristol & West whose low rate undercuts the leading lenders' rates for similar products. Mortgage Next members are now able to offer the two-year 2% discount scheme with a current rate of 3.95%. The deal also offers free valuation for properties up to £750,000, with no arrangement fee. Available at 95% LTV to first time buyers, the product carries a procuration fee of 0.3%, with a minimum of £300. Mortgage ...
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Mortgage Promotions breaks 800 barrier
25 Sep 2002
Mortgage Promotions announced yesterday that its membership had broken the 800 member-firms barrier. Nick Baxter, director of Mortgage Promotions, says: "800 members is a significant milestone. We are delighted to have achieved it in just over a year. "With an average of three advisers per firm it now means that at least 2,400 advisers have access to the Mortgage Promotions product providers."
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N&P launches commercial mortgage
23 Sep 2002
Norwich and Peterborough Building Society is launching a flexible commercial mortgage for owners of small to medium-sized businesses. N&P's Flexible Commercial Mortgage combines a traditional commercial mortgage and an overdraft, enabling the business to use any spare cash to make additional repayments to the mortgage to reduce the interest cost. If the business needs extra cash it can be drawn immediately, without the time and hassle of applying for an additional loan. ...
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New discounts as Pink links with Lambeth
24 Sep 2002
Pink Home Loans is joining forces with Lambeth Building Society to enhance its high street product offering. Lambeth, London's leading building society and a specialist in shared ownership, homebuy, and key worker mortgages, is the latest addition to Pink's direct access lender panel. Tony Jones, managing director at Pink Home Loans, says: "We are delighted to welcome the Lambeth onto our direct panel of lenders. The Society's award-winning product offering, ...
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New managers at Principality
23 Sep 2002
Principality Building Society has made two new managerial appointments following a restructuring at executive level. David Mills has been appointed to the role of head of programme management, while Peter Owen recently joined the society as business change manager. Having been with the society for almost 20 years, Mills has gained wide experience in various Principality departments and most recently developed the society's credit scoring capability. He sees ...
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No decision in N&P judicial review
23 Sep 2002
Judgment has been reserved in the judicial review of the Financial Ombudsman Service decision regarding interest paid on Norwich & Peterborough Building Society's TESSA Select Account. No date was given for the judgment. Before commencing legal action, N&P pledged that, if unsuccessful, it would pay extra interest to members with qualifying TESSA accounts. This payment would amount to an estimated £1.3 million and the society estimates that around 50,000 of ...
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NU Healthcare rates available on MediQuote
24 Sep 2002
MediQuote, the comparative PMI portal managed by Sirius Financial Systems, has announced that Norwich Union Healthcare's guaranteed individual rates will be available on the system with immediate effect. Applications are required but, the facility to print proposal forms and product documents online is available. Since the portal's launch early last year, the use of MediQuote has increased significantly. It now has more than 1,300 registered users and it recently ...
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OFT launches debt management compliance review
27 Sep 2002
Fee-charging debt management companies' (DMCs) compliance with minimum standards for the industry will be examined in a new OFT compliance review. The review will gather information from customers, providers of free debt advice, DMCs and trade associations, and will include: a review of advertisements and marketing to ensure they are accurate, clear and not misleading. For example, any reference to 'savings' on repayments must make it equally clear that ...
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Online quotations at A&L
23 Sep 2002
Alliance & Leicester has enhanced its website to include an online mortgage quotation and application process. The software has been developed by software solution company Ridgian to enable Alliance & Leicester to strengthen the support it gives its customers. The bespoke site developments provide a range of tools and an advanced repayment calculator to help all types of mortgage customers to find the best deal for them, as well as saving them time. Jason Betteridge, ...
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Origo launches UNIPASS
27 Sep 2002
The number of passwords that IFAs have to remember to access company extranets is a major barrier to working online, a survey has found. The online survey of 185 IFAs, carried out by Origo, the standards body for the financial services industry, found that 42% of IFAs have to remember more than 15 passwords in order to carry out their business online. Just over 10% of respondents claimed that they have to remember more than 30 passwords to enter provider extranets. As ...
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Preferred Mortgages finalises £200m securitisation
27 Sep 2002
Preferred Mortgages has completed a £200million securitisation of non-conforming mortgage assets. This is the fifth and largest transaction for Preferred Mortgages, bringing its total securitised assets to £0.5billion since the company was formed in 1996. The securitisation was arranged by Credit Suisse First Boston. The three major rating agencies - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch - have all awarded the securitisation a 'AAA' rating which ...
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SHELTER blasts right-to-buy scheme
24 Sep 2002
Right-to-buy schemes are costing the taxpayer billions and increasing the misery of homelessness, homeless charity SHELTER revealed yesterday. SHELTER's report follows recent media reports that the Government is considering reforms to the right-to-buy in light of evidence that it is being abused. SHELTER is calling on the Government to go further and temporarily withdraw the discounts available under the scheme in areas of severe housing shortage, particularly London ...
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Skipton launches five-year fixed rate
26 Sep 2002
Skipton Building Society is launching a new five-year fixed rate mortgage offering borrowers the security of an interest rate fixed at 4.99% until December 31 2007. The deal, available from Friday 27, carries features including free MIG up to 90% LTV, loans up to 95% LTV, free legal fees for remortgages or £250 cashback in Scotland, and daily interest, overpayments and payment holiday options. The product carries a redemption charge of 5% of the balance of the ...
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Skipton launches new dollar-linked tracker
24 Sep 2002
Skipton Building Society this week launches a new US dollar LIBOR-linked tracker. 'The Stateside Tracker Mortgage' will be available from Friday September 27 at a rate of 3.60% with free legal fees for all remortgages. Though the loan is repayable by the borrower in pounds Sterling in exactly the same way as any other UK mortgage, the interest rate is benchmarked against the 3-month US dollar LIBOR rate (USDL) for the first five years. USDL has been an ...
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SLB launches four-year buy-to-let discount
25 Sep 2002
Standard Life Bank has launched a four-year discount on its flexible buy-to-let variable rate mortgage to enable investors to maximise the return on their investment over the long term. Standard Life Bank offers the buy-to-let mortgage at the following new rates: Up to 50% LTV = 5.24% with a 0.30% discount for four years at a rate of 4.94% 50.01% - 65% = 5.49% with a 0.30% discount for four years at a rate of 5.19% 65.01% - 80% = ...
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Source insurance quotation software now free to Trigold subscribers
27 Sep 2002
Trigold has announced a distribution deal with Sentinel UK Ltd, producers of The Source insurance quotation software package. This alliance means that all intermediaries currently subscribing to Trigold will have free access to the Source Insurance system to generate a range of comparative quotations from a panel of leading UK insurers, and submit the selected application electronically. Trigold says the process is quick and intuitive, taking information input during ...
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TMB outstrips market 20% year-on-year
25 Sep 2002
The Mortgage Business, the self-certification, buy-to-let and flexible specialist lender, has outstripped the mortgage market in terms of gross lending by over 20% year on year. With CML figures indicating that the lending market is up by 41% in 2002, TMB's gross lending figures are up by 62.7% on the first seven months of 2001. In July 2001, TMB had gross lending of £107m in a total market of £15,500m, a 0.69% market share, In July 2002, this has more ...
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Two new discount mortgages as Pink links with Lambeth
24 Sep 2002
Pink Home Loans is joining forces with Lambeth Building Society to enhance its high street product offering. Lambeth, London's leading building society, and a specialist in shared ownership, homebuy and key worker mortgages, is the latest addition to Pink's direct access lender panel. Lambeth has undergone significant change within the last 18 months and now has a new management team and a competitive range of mortgage products. Tony Jones, managing director ...
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Two new discounts from Pink
27 Sep 2002
Pink Home Loans has launched two exclusive mainstream products from Lambeth Building Society to mark its new membership of Pink's direct lender panel. Both are two-year products, one at 1.99%, the other at 3.70%. In any 12-month period following completion, the client is given the flexible option of paying up to 10% of the original loan amount without incurring any early redemption charges. This can be done either through regular monthly overpayments or a lump sum. David ...
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UK mortgage market best in Europe, says CML
25 Sep 2002
The mortgage market in the UK is the most dynamic, innovative and competitive in Europe, CML director-general Michael Coogan told delegates yesterday at Eurocatalyst 2002, a major new event on the European mortgage industry. In his speech to conference delegates in Madrid, Coogan identified the reasons why the UK is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, highlighting the introduction of voluntary regulation through the Mortgage Code in 1997, which has since been used ...
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YBS employees enjoy more flexibility
23 Sep 2002
Yorkshire Building Society says its flexible working scheme has had good results since its implementation 18 months ago. The Society was granted £25,000 from the Department of Education and Employment's Challenge Fund to help set up the scheme, which now sees around 25% more new mothers return to work after maternity leave, reduced staff absenteeism and a significant reduction in stress related absence. It is also considered that the flexible working opportunities ...
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Yorkshire goes flexible with staff
24 Sep 2002
Yorkshire Building Society says it has benefited from the introduction new flexible working patterns to meet employees' needs. The new policy, which was introduced eighteen months ago, provides opportunities for staff to balance their work life with their home life with schemes such as compressed hours, where individuals work the same number of hours in fewer days, flexitime, where start and finish times vary, and home working to avoiding a lengthy commute each day. John ...
