SHIP launches campaign to boost funding
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Safe Home Income Plans, has started a campaign to encourage major financial institutions to consider the provision of funding for the equity release market.
As part of this campaign, SHIP and law firm DWF held a debate on 26 November that brought equity release providers, financiers and interested stakeholders together to discuss this issue.
The debate came to a number of conclusions, including that the market is misleadingly viewed as not currently big enough for large players, but too complex for smaller players.
The vast majority of participants also felt the market would grow in the future and believed that potential funders would enter the market, but were unsure of timings.
Participants also agreed that the products ideally need some risk acceptance from the government.
Andrea Rozario, director general of SHIP, says: “To kick off our campaign, SHIP representatives have been meeting with banking and finance representatives to broker relationships between the financing and equity release industry, and begin initial discussions about how the two industries can work together. This debate helped to open the channels of communication and bring the issue into the open.
“In some financial services sectors, there is an outdated view about the viability and safety of equity release schemes. SHIP members are reporting huge demand from the public for equity release schemes, but due to the liquidity issues in the market, the funding is not always available.”
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