Mortgage Strategy
24 August 2009
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23% of borrowers on interest-only loans
24 Aug 2009
Research from Moneysupermarket.com shows 23% of UK mortgage holders are on interest-only mortgages.
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60 seconds with…..Sally Laker
24 Aug 2009
How has the acquisition of Mortgage intelligence by Mortgage Next's parent European Financial Solutions benefited the network?
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ARs in industry exodus due to business decline
24 Aug 2009
A colossal 711 mortgage brokers and IFAs have left networks in the past year, with Vision Network shedding 107 Appointed Representatives in the last six months.
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ASA bans Land and Property advert
24 Aug 2009
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement from sale-and-rent-back firm Land and Property Bank Limited for being misleading.
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Asking prices down 2.2% in August
24 Aug 2009
Aggressive summer pricing pushed asking prices down by 2.2% in August.
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Australian buy-to-lets on offer from Paradigm
24 Aug 2009
Paradigm Mortgage Services members can now market Australian buy-to-let properties as part of a partnership with property investment firm Forrester Cohen.
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Ban for broker who paid loans with firm's cash
24 Aug 2009
A broker who used company money to pay off her own mortgages and submitted false applications has been banned by the Financial Services Authority and fined £70,000.
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Banks making little profit on mortgage lending
24 Aug 2009
High street banks have made little return on mortgage business this year as profits have been hit by funding costs and a lower savings margin, a report from KPMG reveals.
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Banks put gem heist robbers in shade
24 Aug 2009
A good old-fashioned diamond jewellery heist - that's just the tonic I needed after reading the latest figures on unemployment and repossession predictions from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
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Banks told not to underestimate European Commission
25 Aug 2009
Fitch Ratings has warned state-backed banks not to underestimate the power of the European Commission in saying how they should be run.
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Brokers eligible for government loans
26 Aug 2009
The Department for Business Innovation & Skills has clarified to the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries that mortgage brokers are eligible for the government's £1.3bn Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme.
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Brokers must seek fresh opportunities
24 Aug 2009
It seems strange but summer is almost over, seemingly before it really got going. The market doesn’t stop over the summer months but there is often a feeling of life and perhaps work being on hold as we take time to recharge our batteries.
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Brokers turn to property to make up shortfall in mortgage business
24 Aug 2009
Brokers and property firms are adopting the role of estate agents by sourcing properties for their clients to make up for the dearth of mortgage business.
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Business development appointment at CFS
24 Aug 2009
Clear Finance Solutions has appointed Joe Tooma as head of business development.
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Buy-to-let is no riskier than prime residential sector, claims Heron
24 Aug 2009
John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, says the public's image of buy-to-let is distorted and that it is no riskier than the prime residential sector.
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Buy-to-let or lend-to-lose
25 Aug 2009
Once upon a time buy-to-let was celebrated as the next best thing to sliced bread.
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Chelsea claims it is not alone as it reveals fraud costs are £41m
24 Aug 2009
Chelsea Building Society says it is not alone in facing massive losses due to mortgage fraud following the revelation that fraud on its buy-to-let book cost the society £41m.
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Chelsea hit with £41m mortgage fraud
25 Aug 2009
Chelsea Building Society has been hit by a £41m mortgage fraud as it posts a pre-tax loss of £26m for the first half of the year.
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Confidence returning to housing market
28 Aug 2009
Rightmove’s third Consumer Confidence Survey shows that over three quarters - 78% of people now feel that UK house prices will not fall any further over the next year.
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Costs force Coventry to suspend new equity release lending
28 Aug 2009
Coventry Building Society has suspended new lending on its equity release range as a result of the high cost of long-term funding.
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Demise of specialists will hit competition
24 Aug 2009
Specialist lenders could account for less than 2% of gross lending by year-end, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association warns.
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Direct products soar as broker deals fall
24 Aug 2009
The number of direct products available has shot up 10% since May and almost 4% since June.
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Distressed commercial sales on the up worldwide
24 Aug 2009
Distressed sales in the commercial property market increased worldwide in Q2.
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Earl Shilton withdraws mortgage products
26 Aug 2009
Earl Shilton Building Society is withdrawing all of its mortgage products until further notice.
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Equity release customers being lured by advertising
24 Aug 2009
One-third of equity release customers choose products based on advertisements, research from Equity Release Solicitors Alliance shows.
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Estate agents charge 50% more for HIPs
24 Aug 2009
Research from Which? Money shows Home Information Packs from estate agents can cost over 50% more than those bought from a specialist.
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Faith in new-build must be restored
24 Aug 2009
The property market is in real need of first-time buyers, not least the vast number of developers with one-bedroom lifestyle apartments that are crying out for owners to snap them up.
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Fighting spirit
24 Aug 2009
In all battles there are those who triumph, those who fall by the wayside and those who gain from others' suffering - and the mortgage market is no different.
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First Assist wins Advent PPI deal
24 Aug 2009
FirstAssist Insurance Services has secured a five-year contract to provide white-label protection products to general insurance broker Advent Solutions Management.
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Free online sales toolkit from Conti
24 Aug 2009
Conti has developed a free online sales toolkit to help brokers generate overseas mortgage business from their existing client bank. It is available from Conti's website and includes a customer brochure and lead generator letters for new mortgages and remortgages.
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FSA fines IFA for non-disclosure
25 Aug 2009
The Financial Services Authority has fined Christopher Davies, director of Newquay Investment Services Limited, an IFA based in Cornwall, £17,500 for withholding important information about an adviser he employed.
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FSA's bonus code is a positive step
24 Aug 2009
Is common sense finally prevailing in the world of banking? Has the regulator learnt some lessons from the turmoil of the credit crunch?
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Gender is not the answer to our ills
24 Aug 2009
In last week’s column I may have explored the gender agenda as raised by Harriet Harman in a dismissive way. I even poured scorn on her vision for the United Kingdom and suggested she had ambitions to re-engineer it as the United Femdom.
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Gross mortgage lending up 26%
25 Aug 2009
Gross mortgage lending rose 26% in July to £16bn, according to the latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
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Halifax launches low cost housing range for brokers
26 Aug 2009
Halifax has launched a range of shared equity and shared ownership products to be distributed solely through brokers as part of the lender’s bid to boost access to the housing market.
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Hard truth better than false hopes
24 Aug 2009
Over the past year the Ministry of Justice has shut down more than 100 claims management companies, many of which were using misleading advertising stating that credit card debts could be written off within six weeks and that 80% of credit agreements were unenforceable.
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Home Buyer Systems launches mi-Zone
26 Aug 2009
Home Buyer Systems has launched a mortgage and GI sales administration system designed for both intermediary and direct-to-lender products, called mi-Zone.
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House price rise reaches five-year high
28 Aug 2009
The latest figures from the Land Registry show house prices increased 1.7% in July, the strongest monthly growth since July 2004.
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House prices up fourth month in a row
27 Aug 2009
House prices rose again in August by 1.6% says the Nationwide, taking the average UK house price to £160,224, up from £158,871 in July.
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Housebuilder reports decline in house prices
24 Aug 2009
Bovis Homes has reported a £8.6m loss for the first six months of 2009, and says house prices have plummeted to £160,400, compared with £196,700 in the first six months of 2008.
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Housing starts up 63% on first quarter
24 Aug 2009
Figures from the Department of Communities and Local Government show there were an estimated 29,980 seasonally adjusted housing starts in England in Q2 2009, up 63% on the previous quarter but 9% lower than Q2 2008.
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If you're asked for some advice, keep schtum
24 Aug 2009
It happened again last week and I can now see it coming a mile away. The scenario is always the same - it's Sunday night, the phone rings and you find yourself chatting to someone you barely remember.
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It's hard to charge fees with lenders still dual pricing
24 Aug 2009
Reading your last cover feature on fees (Mortgage Strategy August 10) I notice that the only people talking about charging fees are the directors of firms, but not brokers who have to sit with clients who have already been offered a deal from lenders with no advice and no fee, but which sounds better than what brokers are offering.
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King voted for bigger cash boost
24 Aug 2009
The Bank of England governor wanted to boost quantitative easing by £75bn but was outvoted by other members of the Monetary Policy Committee, minutes from this month's meeting reveal.
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League table confirms broker exodus
24 Aug 2009
The network league table produced by independent network consultant Which Network shows the number of appointed representatives in individual networks at the end of June 2009. It also gives the numbers joining and leaving the networks for the six months up to that date.
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Leeds reduces rates on fixed mortgages
27 Aug 2009
Leeds Building Society has cut the rate on its two and five-year fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.50% and 0.46%.
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Lenders failing to reduce fixed rates
25 Aug 2009
Mortgage lenders are showing continuing reluctance to reduce the cost of fixed rate mortgages, despite around a 30 basis point reduction in the cost of funding on the swap rates market, says Moneyfacts.co.uk.
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Letters on direct deals did not get the facts straight
24 Aug 2009
Two letters in the August 10 issue of Mortgage Strategy referred to the large savings of up to £5,000 that can be made by borrowers choosing a direct mortgage deal when compared with an equivalent broker-only product.
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Lloyds Group to cut 200 GI jobs
25 Aug 2009
Lloyds Banking Group is to cut approximately 200 jobs from its General Insurance division as it merges the Lloyds TSB and HBOS GI businesses into one.
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Lloyds reviews C&G closure to win EC approval
24 Aug 2009
Speculation is rife that Lloyds Banking Group may now sell its Cheltenham & Gloucester branches after revealing it is reviewing its decision to close them.
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Lloyds TSB Development Capital buys 1st The Exchange
26 Aug 2009
1st - The Exchange, a provider of technology and e-commerce solutions to the financial services sector, has received the backing of Lloyds TSB Development Capital.
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Marketwatch 24/08/2009
24 Aug 2009
Swaps dropped for the second week in a row. One-year swaps are the lowest they have ever been and two-year swaps are within several basis points of their lowest point.
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Media Spotlight: The Shock Doctrine By Naomi Klein
24 Aug 2009
International best-selling author and prolific journalist Naomi Klein first shot to fame nine years ago with the publication of her book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, which analysed the growing tide of anger being directed toward the big multinational corporations.
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Moody's Gets It Wrong Again
28 Aug 2009
After their complete failure prior to the credit crunch to properly do the job they are paid to do (by the issuers of those same mortgage backed securities they were rating) and spot where the risks were in these securities, a report by Moody’s today provides another classic example that they still have a lot to learn about the UK mortgage market.
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More borrowers opt for a quick fix
24 Aug 2009
With interest rates bottoming out it seems the majority of borrowers are turning to a quick fix at the moment.
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Mortgage completions up 46% at Home of Choice
26 Aug 2009
Home of Choice saw the highest volume of mortgage completions for six months in July, an increase of 46% on the previous month and 48% on the previous quarter.
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Mortgage lending leaps 26% but times are still tough, warns CML
24 Aug 2009
Gross mortgage lending rose 26% in July as Bank of England figures revealed that 80% of mortgage applications are being approved.
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Mortgagematch in tie-up with Mortgageforce
24 Aug 2009
Mortgagematch Homeloans has teamed up with Mortgageforce and will now trade under the national broker franchise's brand.
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MPs raise issue of arrears fees and lack of flexibility
24 Aug 2009
The recent Treasury Select Committee report following an investigation into mortgage arrears and access to mortgage finance found that mainstream lenders are broadly complying with the Financial Services Authority's rules and taking pro-active steps to help consumers facing mortgage repayment difficulties.
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Mutuals' market share under threat, warns KPMG
24 Aug 2009
KPMG has raised concerns that building societies may not be able to take a significant share of the mortgage market as the sector is hit by smaller profits and funding and capital issues.
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Mutuals risk losing market share, warns KPMG
25 Aug 2009
KPMG has raised concerns that building societies may not be able to take a significant share of the mortgage market as the sector is hit by smaller profits and funding and capital issues.
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Network Data ARs do not seem to have learnt any lessons
24 Aug 2009
Having just returned from holiday I see there has been some debate about the protection of appointed representatives' commission - in particular whether it should be ring-fenced.
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No place for social engineering in UK
24 Aug 2009
If you're a student, or black, Arabic, or maybe Jewish and don't have two shillings to rub together stop reading now. I recently read this headline 'Anger over government's charter to evict students, immigrants and the poor from affordable homes' and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
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oc
24 Aug 2009
How has the acquisition of Mortgage intelligence by Mortgage Next's parent European Financial Solutions benefited the network?
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Ownership dream has turned sour
24 Aug 2009
Looking back, it strikes me that Margaret Thatcher has had quite an effect on my life, both professional and personally.
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Paaleads claims £32m proc fees hand-out
24 Aug 2009
Paaleads.com claims it has delivered leads to brokers worth £32.8m in proc fees over the last year. The website says leads have totalled over £33bn in mortgage value over the last 12 months, of which £9.3bn was converted, resulting in proc fees of £32.8m.
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Packagers can raise profile of specialists
24 Aug 2009
It appears that some lenders are once again looking at the market. There are also stirrings from the packager sector which can mean only one thing - there is a firm commitment to a longer term strategy from those financing some packagers.
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Payback time
24 Aug 2009
Have you ever daydreamed about exacting extreme violence on your boss? When it's been a long week and all you really want is some peace and quiet and he just won't let up?
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Paymentshield gets Promise on panel
24 Aug 2009
Promise Solutions has been appointed to Paymentshield's panel as the preferred provider of secured loans to its club members.
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Personal Touch to offer sale-and-rent-back
25 Aug 2009
Personal Touch Financial Services has appointed Peter Beaumont’s sale-and-rent back provider to provide specialist rent-back support to its appointed representatives.
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Pink sets Q3 seminar dates
24 Aug 2009
Pink Home Loans is set to start its next round of quarterly seminars for Pink and BDS appointed representatives and directly authorised members.
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Prime arrears on the rise
27 Aug 2009
The number of prime borrowers in three-month arrears has continued to rise as Moody’s warns that arrears on prime mortgages are set to deteriorate.
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Promise cuts interest rates
24 Aug 2009
Loan master broker Promise Solutions has reduced annual interest rates by more than 3% on a number of its near prime and sub-prime loans.
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Repayments force net lending slump
25 Aug 2009
Mortgage repayments outweighed new lending in July pushing net mortgage lending to its lowest level since October 2000.
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Rescue scheme is just another fiasco
24 Aug 2009
I suspect few will be surprised by reports that the latest government initiative for home buyers has only helped 15 cases.
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Return of investors will signal recovery
24 Aug 2009
There certainly seems to be plenty of good news on the world economy over the last few weeks.
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Riddle of vanishing ARs
24 Aug 2009
This week's Mortgage Strategy sees the return of our network review - a quarterly round-up of networks' appointed representative numbers.
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Rising confidence signals recession's end
24 Aug 2009
Business confidence has risen for the first time in two years leading to forecasts that the UK may pull itself out of recession this quarter.
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Rising toll of mortgage arrears tells its own sad story
24 Aug 2009
There was a little good news earlier this month with figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders pointing to a fall in repossessions.
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Savills’ financial services posts over £2m loss
27 Aug 2009
Savills has posted an underlying loss of £2.1m before tax for its financial services arm for the six months to June 2009.
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Say no more
24 Aug 2009
It was a case of "silence speaks volumes" last week when Sir John Gieve, who recently stepped down as deputy governor of the Bank of England, appeared on Radio 4's new series Peston and the Money Men.
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Scottish mortgage market begins to stabilise
26 Aug 2009
Figures from the Council of Mortgage lenders shows lending activity in Scotland began to stabilise in Q2, mirroring the trend seen in the UK more widely.
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Secured lending business falls 84%
24 Aug 2009
The Finance & Leasing Association's latest figures on consumer finance lending among its members shows new secured lending business fell 84% in Q2 of 2009.
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Self-cert mortgages account for 2% of market
26 Aug 2009
Self-certification mortgages now account for less than 2% of the market compared with 10% a year ago, shows analysis from Evaluate Technologies.
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Shirt shrift
24 Aug 2009
Mole hears clothes maker Charles Tyrwhitt is doing a roaring trade despite the economic gloom - even more amazingly as the company specialises in business wear, namely shirts.
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State ownership does not give us an unfair advantage, claims Rock
24 Aug 2009
Northern Rock has denied claims that it benefits from an unfair advantage over competitors due to government support.
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State-backed banks warned on EC powers
24 Aug 2009
Fitch Ratings has warned state-backed banks not to underestimate the powers of the European Commission over how they should be run.
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Stroud & Swindon boss to quit
24 Aug 2009
The chief executive of Stroud & Swindon Building Society, David Hill, has decided to step down at the end of the month.
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Support our bid to outlaw unfair dual pricing practice
24 Aug 2009
Lenders' practice of dual pricing must surely contravene the FSA's principle of treating customers fairly.
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Swap rates fall, but fixed rates don't
25 Aug 2009
In its regular comparison of the price of fixed rate mortgages with swap rates Moneyfacts has today flagged up that the current differential of 3.14% between two-year swaps at 2.04% and the average two-year fix at 5.18% is the widest on record. It hasn’t commented on other terms but all will be at or close to record levels.
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Tesco set to launch UK service centre
24 Aug 2009
Tesco Personal Finance has announced plans to open a customer service centre in Glasgow as part of the supermarket giant's bid to offer full banking services. The centre is due to open in the first half of 2010 and will create over 800 jobs.
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The horror
24 Aug 2009
Sharpen your eyeliner pencils and dig out your black clothes - apparently the recession is making the British public obsessed with gothic culture and horror films.
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Three main areas lenders must focus on to help brokers
24 Aug 2009
With improvement in the housing market and data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders confirming an increase in lending and a decrease in repossessions, the mortgage market is now showing signs of stabilising or, dare I say, a recovery.
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Turner moots bank tax to curb bonuses
27 Aug 2009
Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has opened up a debate on whether a special tax on banks could curb excessive City bonus culture.
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UK GDP fall less severe than thought
28 Aug 2009
The UK’s economy contracted by 0.7% between April and June, slightly less than the previous estimate of 0.8%.
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Un-picking
24 Aug 2009
Little good news has come out of the recession. Job losses are the norm, company collapses barely raise an eyebrow and terms like "economic meltdown" are bandied about on a daily basis.
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Upfront fees could be the final nail in the coffin for many mortgage brokers
24 Aug 2009
I was interested to read the cover feature in the August 10 issue of Mortgage Strategy entitled 'Fees fear'.
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Valunation hires John Bagshaw as chief executive
24 Aug 2009
Valunation has appointed former Countrywide Surveyors director John Bagshaw as chief executive, as it emerges that managing director Jon Steward has stepped down.
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Variable rates business doubles at John Charcol
27 Aug 2009
Business from tracker and discount rates doubled at John Charcol during July as the cost of fixed rate deals soared, figures from the brokerage reveal.
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We have to work harder to get the message across
24 Aug 2009
Coming from a BDM background I've always realised the value of developing professional connections.
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We must adapt to a changing market
24 Aug 2009
Change is constant - this is a long-standing business cliché that we are all familiar with.
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We now seem to be just a referring agency for lenders
24 Aug 2009
I felt I must write to you about how lenders are treating brokers unfairly.
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Why we must teach financial planning
24 Aug 2009
An economic downturn prompts many people to seriously rethink the state of their finances and their long-term financial future.
