Mortgage Strategy articles from February 2007

Mortgage Strategy archives from February 2007

COMMENT: Insolvency crisis is here to stay.
February 5, 2007... Insolvencies are up by almost 60% from 2005, with some 29,804 individuals entering into bankruptcy or an individual voluntary arrangement during Q4 2006. Figures out last week from the Insolvency Service represent an increase of 7.1% on...

Edeus restructures business.
February 5, 2007... Booming business volumes and unprecedented support from the packaging market has forced edeus to restructure its product proposition and realign its core staff. Michael Bolton's start-up raked in some #1bn worth of business within eight...

Basle II could lead to sub-prime hike.
February 5, 2007... Norwich and Peterborough predicts that the mortgage industry will see a price hike in sub-prime products as Basle II gains more prominence in the mortgage market. European directive Basle II is currently being implemented by the...

Rooftop back in adverse as Fitch lifts bad rating.
February 5, 2007... Rooftop has come back into the heavy adverse market after Fitch Ratings lifted its negative rating watch on the lender. Fitch has now removed most of Rooftop's bonds from its credit watch after they were red-flagged in November 2006. As a...

Tesco and L&C team up for free advice.
February 5, 2007... Tesco Mortgages is offering customers a free mortgage advice service in partnership with London & Country for a six-month trial period. James Cotton, mortgage specialist at London & Country, says: "The service is being offered on a pilot...

IN BRIEF: Chelsea reviews buy-to-let range.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Chelsea says it is reviewing its buy-to-let product range due to the pressure on profit margins caused by the sector's recent growth. Richard Hornbrook, chief executive at Chelsea, says: "We are looking at our position and how much risk we...

IN BRIEF: Personal Touch's two-year tracker.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Personal Touch is launching a two-year Woolwich tracker deal to its network members, as well as directly authorised brokers, via Mortgagebox. The two-year deal undercuts the base rate by 0.1%, with a rate of 5.15% offering free valuation...

IN BRIEF: Concordia does first exclusive deal.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Concordia signed its first exclusive deal with Intelligent Finance last week. The product is a two-year offset tracker at 0.4% below base, then reverting to base plus 0.95%, with an arrangement fee of #2,500. The minimum loan size is...

IN BRIEF: Abbey gross lending grows 18%.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Abbey saw an 18% increase in gross mortgage lending of #32.6bn in 2006, despite a 0.2% decrease in its estimated market share. The Banco Santander-owned UK bank reported gross mortgage lending increased from #27.6bn in 2005 to #32.6bn in 2006,...

IN BRIEF: BM Solutions wins award.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... BM Solutions has been voted as best overall lender for 2006 by London brokerage Square Mile Mortgage Finance. Beating off competition from Portman/The Mortgage Works and Abbey, BM Solutions reclaimed the title it previously won in 2004....

Wimpey bans buy-to-let.
February 5, 2007... House builder George Wimpey has banned buy-to-let investors from investing in its #65,000-a-house affordable property scheme. The scheme, called G2, offers houses from #65,000 and has already sold 60 units in Grantham, East Midlands. ...

Exit fee ruling did not go far enough, say brokers.
February 5, 2007... Some 65% of Mortgage Strategy Online readers last week voted that the Financial Services Authority had not gone far enough in its ruling on exit fees. Although lenders could lose thousands of pounds as disgruntled borrowers who had to pay...

Melton buys a stake in Praxis.
February 5, 2007... Melton Mowbray last week bought a minority stake in packager Praxis. Praxis has likened the deal to Skipton's ownership of Pink Home Loans, with the society distributing via Praxis but not on an exclusive basis. Richard Stettner,...

Accord rings changes on affordability.
February 5, 2007... Accord Mortgages will deduct borrower debt from its affordability calculations from February 22. It says growing national debt has put increasing pressure on its affordability measure, hence the change. To offset this, Accord is...

Kensington subsidiaries boosted growth in 2006.
February 5, 2007... Kensington Group has revealed that the 17% growth it saw in 2006 was driven by its subsidiaries Money Partners and Start, not its core business Kensington Mortgages. Although Kensington Mortgages brought in #2.128bn in new mortgage...

Industry support for PPI body.
February 5, 2007... Brokers and lenders have supported the idea of creating an industry body whose purpose would be to help advisers understand payment protection insurance. Andy Pratt, chief executive of Alexander Hall, made the call for an independent...

Egg now in Citigroup's basket.
February 5, 2007... Citigroup says it will look at exploring synergies between its mortgage businesses following the acquisition of Egg Banking from Prudential last week. The international financial conglomerate acquired 100% of the online bank and...

Leadbay diversifies with car finance leads.
February 5, 2007... Lead generation website Leadbay is to offer car finance leads from today. It says it has seen a growing demand for car finance leads from both mortgage and loan advisers,with borrowers increasingly seeking car finance over the internet...

Slow IVA business blamed on banks.
February 5, 2007... Individual voluntary arrangement firms last week revealed that they are losing out as banks take a tough line on consumer debt. IVAs are a way of consumers avoiding bankruptcy by reorganising their debts into a monthly payment. ...

IN BRIEF: Paaleads phone service launched.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Paaleads.com has launched a 'qualified by telephone' service for mortgage leads, which enables leads to be passed to brokers immediately. The service means that while on the phone, a paaleads.com team member will confirm the lead is actively...

IN BRIEF: Em- unveils Rooftop range.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Em- has announced the launch of a buy-to-let range from Rooftop, available from February 5. It provides up to 90% LTV on buy-to-let purchases and remortgages. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

BM Solutions defends Mortgage Plus range.
February 5, 2007... BM Solutions has rebuffed criticism that the rate slash on its 125% LTV Mortgage Plus range is not enough to allow it to compete with rival high LTV products. The UK's number one specialist lender last week slashed rates on its Mortgage...

Cameron's green home will attract higher Council Tax.
February 5, 2007... Tory leader David Cameron faces higher Council Tax bills after securing planning permission to make his home more environmentally friendly. A report by the cross-party Trade and Industry Select Committee has warned that any green...

Repossessions on the rise.
February 5, 2007... The Council of Mortgage Lenders predicts that repossessions will climb to 20,000 in 2008, based on expectations of further base rate rises. Last week, figures released by the trade body showed that repossessions rose by 65% in 2006, up...

Amber Homeloans joins Pink's packaging panel.
February 5, 2007... Amber Homeloans has joined Pink Home Loans' packaging panel. In conjunction with Amber, Pink offers a number of semi-exclusive packaged products, with free valuations on all products from medium adverse to super-heavy adverse. Amber...

Network Data's icy reward for top ARs.
February 5, 2007... Network Data will reward its top 20 producers at its annual conference on March 8. The network's top producers scheme recognises the 20 appointed representatives that have placed the highest levels of mortgage and protection business...

Drawdown plans to drive equity sector.
February 5, 2007... Drawdown plans saw a sixfold increase in business in 2006, prompting speculation that the future of equity release may lie in these policies rather than lump sum options. Statistics released by Safe Home Income Plans show total overall...

Landlords undettered by interest rate rises, says Paragon.
February 5, 2007... Landlords will be undeterred by interest rate hikes while first-time buyers will be priced out of the market, says Paragon Mortgages. Recent research by Paragon shows that rental yields achieved by residential investors have remained...

IN BRIEF: Prestige becomes AFB associate.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Prestige Finance has joined the Association of Finance Brokers as an associate member. Simon Stern, director of Prestige, says: "We look forward to working closely with the AFB. As the market becomes more regulated, it is vital that lenders...

IN BRIEF: Buy-to-let stays local.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... New research for Landlord Mortgages has revealed that just over 77% of buy-to-let investors still choose to invest in their local area. Even in London, which boasts some of the UK's highest house prices, over half of investors still...

FSA fine not aimed at GEMHL.
February 5, 2007... GE Money Home Lending stressed last week that action taken against its sister company GE Capital Bank by the Financial Services Authority is in no way related to its own activities. The FSA slapped a whopping #610,000 fine on GECB for not...

GMAC helped us grow, says BDS.
February 5, 2007... BDS has praised GMAC-RFC for helping it achieve a 42% increase in business levels during 2006. The packager says GMAC-RFC's products and the launch of its point-of- sale offer technology has played a part in helping BDS grow. But it also...

A year on, AIM loses Griffiths.
February 5, 2007... Rob Griffiths last week quit as associate director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries after just 12 months in the role. Since joining the trade body at the end of January 2006, Griffiths has had responsibility for the...

Pensioners feel mortgage pain.
February 5, 2007... Nearly one in five home owners aged 65-plus have not cleared their mortgage by the time they receive a state pension, says price comparison website mform.co.uk. Mform says pensioners are spending on average #283 a month on mortgages, even...

IN BRIEF: SAGA Spanish service for over-50s.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... SAGA has launched an overseas homes service in an attempt to help people over the age of 50 to buy a home in Spain. A third of people aged over 50 are considering buying a holiday home abroad, according to a report by SAGA. Over half of those...

Broker cashes in on utilities.
February 5, 2007... A Welsh broker says he is expanding his revenue stream by saving customers money on their utility bills. John Bowden, proprietor of The Better Mortgage Shop in Colwyn Bay, has joined forces with Utility Warehouse, part of Telecom Plus....

RBS offers brokers online exclusives.
February 5, 2007... Royal Bank of Scotland Intermediary Partners is offering five products to intermediaries exclusively online. They include three NatWest buy-to-let products with a choice of two two- year fixed rate mortgages, either at 5.74% with a #1,499...

EC completes Trigold sourcing integration.
February 5, 2007... Exclusive Connections has fully integrated with Trigold's sourcing system. This will mean that brokers can access EC applications directly from Trigold. Matthew Arena, managing director of EC, says: "We have been working closely...

Hamptons parent makes record profits.
February 5, 2007... Hamptons Mortgages' parent company Emaar Properties last week revealed record profits. Dubai-based Emaar recorded an annual net profit of US$1.7bn in 2006, compared with US$1.28bn at the end of 2005, a rise of 35%. Annual revenue...

Countrywide is batting its eyelashes again.
February 5, 2007... Four years ago National Mortgage News broke a story about Countrywide Home Loans talking to Bank of America about taking over its mortgage business through an outsourcing arrangement. When the story was reported the world yawned. Most of...

IN BRIEF: C&G launches broker exclusives.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Cheltenham & Gloucester has launched a range of intermediary-exclusive fixed rate, buy-to-let and Assist products. The deals are available for house purchases and remortgages. The range includes two-year fixes from 4.29% and two-year...

IN BRIEF: Dunfermline appointments.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Dunfermline has appointed two senior executives in a bid to drive up business. Simon Cocker joins as head of business development and Phil Kennedy joins as head of marketing. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Thinc links with KRS.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Thinc Group is to refer all its equity release business through Key Retirement Solutions. The link will give clients coming to Thinc open access to equity release advice. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Lloyds TSB revamps service.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Lloyds TSB has streamlined its application process and improved pricing for those seeking mortgages to buy property in Dubai and Portugal. The international mortgage service offers a streamlined three-step application process. The service...

IN BRIEF: GMAC sells 12th portfolio.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... GMAC-RFC has sold its 12th portfolio to Britannia Treasury Services. This #400m deal comprises of a blended pool of prime, buy-to-let and self-cert products. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: OFT warns against scams.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Office of Fair Trading has warned consumers to think twice about any offers which seem too good to be true, as it launched its 2007 scam awareness month. Scam techniques include spam emails, texts and internet pop-ups. Copyright:...

IF pledges 24-hour service.
February 5, 2007... Intelligent Finance last week pledged to issue a mortgage offer within 24 hours of receiving a completed mortgage pack. The lender is looking to up its game in a bid to improve the service it offers intermediaries. Cammy Amaira,...

Merrill in Ireland joint venture.
February 5, 2007... Merrill Lynch and Irish Life & Permanent have joined forces to set up a specialist residential lending operation in the Republic of Ireland. The joint venture will be named Springboard Mortgages and will be offering products solely via...

Investors go commercial.
February 5, 2007... Private investors are increasingly choosing to invest in commercial property rather than equities, says Jones Lang LaSalle. This is despite concerns that low rental yields coupled with high fees, not to mention the improving health of the...

Trustguard adds Advantage to lender panel.
February 5, 2007... Trustguard Credit Services has added Advantage to its panel of mortgage lenders, taking the total to 29. The Cardiff-based company says the addition will give its brokers access to some of the lowest interest rates in the sub-prime market....

Small firms urged to use technology.
February 5, 2007... Small firms are being urged to access the same technology as big players to satisfy the Financial Services Authority's requirements on audit trails. Following recent FSA criticism that many small brokers aren't fully compliant when it...

IN BRIEF: Remortgaging rose in December.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Remortgaging was above average in December last year, according to the Bank of England. The remortgaging average for the last six months of 2006 stood at #11.7bn but December saw a slight rise of #0.1bn. Copyright: Centaur Communications...

IN BRIEF: Society offers online facility.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Stroud & Swindon is to use a mortgage sales portal from software provider TietoEnator. This will allow the society to provide online Key Facts Illustrations as well as agreement in principle documentation. Copyright: Centaur...

IN BRIEF: Leeds deals to help first-timers.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Leeds has launched a 100% fixed rate product and a shared ownership fixed rate mortgage, designed to help potential first-time buyers. There are no higher lending charges or completion fees with either product, and both come with free...

Olympics will boost housing.
February 5, 2007... The housing boom on the back of the 2012 Olympics may be enough to lift the UK out of a predicted housing slump, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research. The CEBR predicts a slow house price slump in 2008 with growth...

Harry Potter works magic on Alnwick.
February 5, 2007... Harry Potter is having a magical effect on the housing market in Alnwick after it played host to the set of the popular film. The small Northumberland town was made famous by the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after...

Number of sub-prime deals with fees jumps.
February 5, 2007... The number of sub-prime products that carry a fee of over #1,000 has risen by almost 50% in the past six months, says MoneyExpert.com. The online price comparison website says the average fee payable on a sub-prime product has risen 13.5%...

IN BRIEF: Marketing services database launched.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Mortgage Angels has launched Angels Media to provide database marketing services and support to brokers and lenders. The consumer database includes some 360,000 contact details and the intermediary database around 30,000 brokers. ...

IN BRIEF: Scottish Widows appointment.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Scottish Widows has appointed Richard Clark as head of product development and marketing to replace Murdo McHardy who left last October. Clark joins from Sainsbury's Bank where he was head of marketing communications. Copyright: Centaur...

IN BRIEF: Lib Dems blame lenders for debt.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Liberal Democrats have pinned Britain's debt problems on irresponsible lending. Shadow chancellor Vince Cable says responsible lenders would baulk at lending more than 3 x income. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Appointment at Loanoptions.co.uk.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Loanoptions.co.uk has appointed Gaynor Smith as head of underwriting. She joins from Freedom Finance where she had 12 years' experience in underwriting. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: 21 Million people open to ID theft.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... A survey from Lawpack Publishing reveals that 21 million people do not protect themselves against identity theft while 97% of household waste contains at least one item that could help a fraudster. It also warns 25% of ID theft victims know...

IN BRIEF: House2House criteria extended.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Mortgage Business has extended the criteria on its House 2 House scheme to allow borrowers to fund a second buy-to-let property. It calculates 60% of borrowers on this scheme have the income available and the desire to fund a second...

Platform in specialist push.
February 5, 2007... Platform has launched a product range in an ambitious drive to increase its market share in the specialist lending sector in 2007. The products, which include revised tracker rates and changes to lending criteria, are the first of several...

Online estate agency sees first property sale.
February 5, 2007... BrightSale.co.uk has made its first house sale since launching its online estate agency service three weeks ago. The service, which operates nationally through its website and offices in Surrey and Manchester, sold the property in Cornwall...

Divorcee wins insolvency case.
February 5, 2007... A divorced housewife has won the right to own her family home in a case thought to be the first to test the 1986 Insolvency Act. Despite having been given the right to her family home as part of her divorce settlement, Wendy Haines risked...

Do you think that green belt land should be developed?
February 5, 2007... Kate Barker's proposal to develop green belt land around cities to provide space for increased housing supply has met with a mixed response. Last week, Policy Exchange called for the national green belt policy to be scrapped while an MP...

IN BRIEF: Scotland-based BDM for Em-.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Em- has appointed Helen Connor as business development manager for Scotland and Ireland. She will be based at em-'s Scottish office and support field-based BDM Linda Grant. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Appointments to FSCS board.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Financial Services Authority has appointed Tony Ashford and Rosalind Reston as non-executive directors to the board of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Ashford is chairman of HSBC's pensions trust while Reston, until her recent...

IN BRIEF: Easier2move joins HoC panel.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Easier2move has joined the Home of Choice panel. Mal McConechy, mortgage director of HoC, says: "Easier2move provides a quality service which will add tremendous value to the work we do with brokers." Copyright: Centaur Communications...

ANALYSIS: Market watch - 05.02.07.
February 5, 2007... Shorter term swaps fell slightly last week which was welcome after about eight weeks of relentless rises. I'm not sure whether this is a false dawn or a sign of things to come. Longer term swaps continued to edge upwards. * One-year...

Should providers pay commission to brokers who are no longer regulated?
February 5, 2007... Trust is an important commodity in business and withdrawing trail commission sets a poor precedent, say our experts Paul Thompson is chief executive of Swansure Group Financial advisers should continue to receive trail commission,...

ANALYSIS: Regulator calls time on excessive exit fees.
February 5, 2007... It was good to see the Financial Services Authority publish its findings on exit fees, as this has been one of the biggest scandals in the industry in recent years. Borrower anger has been fired by the rapid rise in these charges. In some...

ANALYSIS: Punters are better off betting on buy-to-let.
February 5, 2007... The Millennium Dome had a difficult birth. Its construction was mired in controversy about the cost as much as its future use. But I think it's beginning to grow on me. Walking past it when I spend a day out at Canary Wharf just adds to...

ANALYSIS: High sub-prime fees hit the most vulnerable.
February 5, 2007... There's no doubt the sub-prime market is much more competitive than it was a few years ago and brokers are able to find relatively well priced deals for clients. But the sector could face a setback if there is a backlash as a result of...

ANALYSIS: Cascading need not become a problem.
February 5, 2007... Mortgage Strategy's inaugural Mortgage Packager Summit in Nice saw a great turn-out from the industry - and not only from those looking for a little winter sun. Many of the topics that came up for discussion got straight to the heart of...

ANALYSIS: Packager is no longer a dirty word.
February 5, 2007... A room full of mortgage packagers and lenders can surely mean only one thing - more bad blood than the shadiest of abattoirs. Nobody will share ideas and all the available time will no doubt be spent talking about how well one company has...

ANALYSIS: A lesson in tackling discrimination.
February 5, 2007... Celebrity Big Brother is finally over. And after the acres of print and hours of footage that have been used up reporting the racist treatment of Bollywood actress (and winner) Shilpa Shetty, can we learn anything? For any responsible...

ANALYSIS: It's nonsense to call Matthews racist.
February 5, 2007... Last week the government slipped in another amendment to Home Information Packs and the Financial Services Authority fired off a warning shot to lenders on exit fees. The FSA also banned an adviser for relying on forged documents,...

ANALYSIS: I am becoming paranoid about HIPs.
February 5, 2007... A wise individual once proclaimed: "It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you." And if recent announcements are anything to go by, I will soon be joining the merry band of paranoid androids (a reference for Radiohead fans). My...

ANALYSIS: Debt companies begin to pay the price.
February 5, 2007... News emerged last week that shares in debt management companies are on the slide as Debt Free Direct and Accuma issued profit warnings. The reasons given in both cases were that a minority of creditors are refusing to agree to individual...

ANALYSIS: We must halt the compensation train.
February 5, 2007... Financial advisers who have worked in our market for any length of time are likely to have experienced compensation claims. The increasing number of these claims has coincided with the growing compensation culture in the UK. In the past,...

ANALYSIS: Big and strong in the regulated world.
February 5, 2007... The Financial Services Authority's January report on selling practices in the mortgage market is the first of many such reports as the regulator shows its teeth. This is a good thing. There was concern that an uneven playing field would...

ANALYSIS: Think before advising on interest-only deals.
February 5, 2007... The debate on interest-only mortgages rumbles on. Given that we are in a rising interest rate environment, it is important for brokers to demonstrate best practice when recommending interest-only deals. Market data indicates that just...