Mortgage Strategy articles from January 2007

Mortgage Strategy archives from January 2007

COMMENT: This will be the year of the distributor.
January 8, 2007... A little over a week into 2007 and already the doomsayers are out in force. If you believe what you read in some of the popular financial press interest rates are due to rise at the next meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy...

Broker banned for not disclosing conviction.
January 8, 2007... A broker who failed to disclose a previous conviction for conspiracy to obtain property by deception has been banned by the Financial Services Authority. John Lepine, a director of Barking-based specialist intermediary First Class...

TV star to front leads campaign.
January 8, 2007... Ruth Badger, runner-up in BBC's reality television show The Apprentice, will be the face of a marketing campaign to generate leads for the financial services industry. The campaign will be launched next month by lead generation firm Help...

Financial guru advises London shoppers on PPI.
January 8, 2007... Financial guru Martin Lewis took to the streets for Tonight with Trevor McDonald last week to spread the word about his payment protection insurance LoanBuster campaign. Lewis had a stand in the Plaza shopping centre in London's Oxford...

IN BRIEF: HBOS staff stand by for windall.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Nearly 15,000 HBOS employees stand to make substantial gains when two HBOS Sharesave schemes mature this week. Employees will receive a tax-free bonus based on their monthly savings which they can either take as cash or use to buy HBOS...

IN BRIEF: A&L complies with Basle II.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Alliance & Leicester says it has become the first UK bank to comply with Basle II regulations. Basle II, which imposes regulatory capital requirements to lending risks, will affect most lenders next year but smaller banks and building...

IN BRIEF: St James's Place CEO steps down.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... St James's Place says Mark Lund has stepped down as chief executive and is leaving the group to seek a fresh challenge. The company says it made a joint decision with Lund that he should step down. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd....

IN BRIEF: Spokesman for Freehold.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Terry Pritchard has been appointed spokesman for the Freehold packagers' association while Paul Brett, who founded the association in 2005, moves on to focus on running new lender FML. Pritchard, whose company Chase UK is a founder member of...

IN BRIEF: Diamond Lifestyle achieves its AIM.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Diamond Lifestyle has successfully completed its move to become quoted on the Alternative Investment Market with the reverse takeover of an existing AIM company called Enterprise North Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Heritable Bank joins AMI.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Heritable Bank has become an associate member of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries. Heritable Bank chief executive Mark Sismey- Durrant says: "Supporting AMI's work on behalf of brokers is important." Copyright: Centaur...

Pink in search for new MED.
January 8, 2007... Pink Home Loans is in the process of recruiting a managing director following Tony Jones' resignation last week. The popular managing director, who has been on sick leave since the beginning of November, is expected to recharge his...

Brokers evenly split on lender retention policies.
January 8, 2007... Mortgage Strategy Online readers are evenly split on whether the remortgage market will fall in 2007 because of lenders' retention policies, with 49% saying yes and 51% saying no. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

Abbey application fee policy angers broker.
January 8, 2007... A broker who found his client had been charged #90 after their case was declined has slammed Abbey's valuation administration fees. Peter Stokes, a broker for Davidson Deem, says: "I had an online agreement in principle with a client for...

First-timers in London face 3% Stamp Duty.
January 8, 2007... Many first-time buyers in London may automatically find themselves in the 3% Stamp Duty bracket with the price of an average first-time property in the capital exceeding #250,000. According to Halifax, people trying to get on the property...

AMI says lenders should take blame for bad deals.
January 8, 2007... The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has called for lenders to take responsibility for flaws in the design of mortgage products. The trade association's response to the Financial Services Authority's Discussion Paper 06/4 outlines...

E-trading system for Nationwide.
January 8, 2007... Nationwide will launch an e-trading system on January 16 to service it and its subsidiary UCB Home Loans. The system has been designed as an alternative for brokers who don't want to use Mortgage Brain's Mortgage Trading Exchange or...

IN BRIEF: MTE's golden deal draws closer.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Following a flurry of activity over the Christmas period, transactions via the Mortgage Trading Exchange now stand at 467,885. This means the lucky winner of a luxury trip to New York is now just 32,115 transactions away from the...

IN BRIEF: Sub-prime boom predicted.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Moneyfacts.co.uk is predicting a blooming sub-prime market in 2007 but warns that customers need clearer classifications if they are to embrace products. The prediction, made by a panel of moneyfacts experts, forecasts more lenders entering...

Gadhia is latest big name to leave RBS.
January 8, 2007... The Royal Bank of Scotland lost another high profile name in the run-up to Christmas with the resignation of director of consumer finance Jayne- Anne Gadhia. Gadhia's departure comes hot on the heels of that of Louis Kaszczak who quit...

HSBC move sparks speculation over mortgage distribution.
January 8, 2007... HSBC's decision to distribute protection products via third party distributors has sparked speculation that it could soon embrace the intermediary market and make mortgage products available to brokers for the first time. The bank is...

Tories look at extending Community Land Trusts.
January 8, 2007... The Conservative Party has set up a task force to investigate how the extension of Community Land Trusts could help more first-time buyers get on the property ladder. Shadow housing minister Michael Gove last week revealed that he is to...

GHL switches sourcing system.
January 8, 2007... Global Home Loans has chosen Home Buyer Systems as its primary mortgage sourcing system, with Trigold and Mortgage Brain losing out. Home Buyer Systems' technology, which will service GHL's 200 appointed representatives, will replace the...

IN BRIEF: Buyers prefer detatched houses.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Detached properties were the most popular choice for buyers in 2006, says Norwich and Peterborough. The number of loans taken out by N&P customers on detached properties remained as high in 2006 as 2005, with the figure increasing by...

IN BRIEF: MEX boosts sales operation.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Mortgage Express has appointed a head of national sales and 12 managers nationwide. Claire Ridgewell, who has been with MEX for 12 years, has been appointed to the newly created position of head of national sales. Copyright: Centaur...

IN BRIEF: TFC revamps its website.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... TFC Homeloans has revamped its website. The website now features a products and services section and also has links to TFC Secured Loans and TFC Commercial. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Amber unveils fixed deals.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Amber Homeloans has launched a range of three-year fixed rate products. The deals are at 5.99% full status and 6.09% self-cert, and are available for borrowers with up to #15,000 worth of County Court judgments against them. Copyright:...

Jobs slashed at Saxon as Morgan Stanley takes over.
January 8, 2007... US investment banking giant Morgan Stanley has slashed 170 jobs at its newly acquired sub-prime unit Saxon Mortgage as part of a restructuring move. Saxon's long-time CEO and president Mike Sawyer and several other top managers also...

Nationwide adviser crowned slimming queen.
January 8, 2007... A Nationwide employee has been crowned slimmer of the year after shedding nearly 10 stone in nine months. Nicki Forster, a 33 year old cashier and accounts adviser at the society, is now a svelte 10st 11lb and gearing up for her next...

McGeough in amicable split from Advantage.
January 8, 2007... Harry McGeough has resigned his position as head of Northern Ireland and Scotland for Advantage after only three months. McGeough joined Advantage from Dunfermline on October 2 and was heading teams in Scotland and Northern Ireland in an...

Broad money figures prompt rate rise fears.
January 8, 2007... Annual UK broad money growth at the end of 2006 shot up to 14% - the highest since 1990 - prompting fears of further interest rate rises to combat inflation. Broad money is money in the public domain being spent with non- financial...

IVAs could boost sub-prime.
January 8, 2007... Cobalt Capital says a boom in personal insolvencies in 2007 could increase competition in the sub-prime market and blur the margin between prime and sub-prime rates. The prediction comes as the personal insolvency practice of accountants...

Primrose appointed to Virtual Net's revised panel.
January 8, 2007... Primrose has been appointed to the new limited packager panel of Virtual Net following the online IFA network's review of the packagers it uses. Virtual Net enables IFAs to conduct all their business via the internet. Online services...

More immigration could boost B2L.
January 8, 2007... The entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union last week sparked optimistic predictions of a buoyant buy-to-let market in 2007. The two former Communist countries became members of the EU on January 1, taking the membership of...

IN BRIEF: Carr-Smith joins C-NLIS board.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... The Council for the National Land Information Service has appointed a former member of the British and Irish Ombudsman for Estate Agents to its executive board. Stephen Carr-Smith will help the C-NLIS develop standards for the property...

IN BRIEF: Tracker deal via PMPA.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... BM Solutions has launched a tracker product via the Professional Mortgage Packagers Alliance. The product is available for self-cert to 90% LTV on a maximum loan of #350,00, 80% LTV to #500,00 and 75% LTV to #1m. Copyright: Centaur...

Don't miss the green boat.
January 8, 2007... The Building Societies Association has warned that lenders must jump on the green mortgage bandwagon now if they want to cash in on the predicted boom in eco-friendly housing. Research from Penrose Financial last week revealed that 58% of...

REITs could herald more investment.
January 8, 2007... Real Estate Investment Trusts have been hotly tipped to lead the way in allowing people to invest in any property - even their local pub. Nine of the UK's leading property developers took advantage of the government's new legislation and...

PTFS rated among UK's fastest growing firms.
January 8, 2007... Personal Touch Financial Services has been rated one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. In the Sunday Times' latest Fast Track 100 business index, privately- owned PTFS came 64th. Many firms that have previously featured in...

Manchester brokers get door-to-door service.
January 8, 2007... Trustguard Manchester has launched a door-to-door packaging service for brokers. As part of the service, Trustguard Manchester's staff will visit brokers' offices in person to collect their applications and check documentation. The...

IN BRIEF: Warning on payment shock.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Mortgage comparison website mform.co.uk warns that more than 315,000 home owners who took out fixed rate mortgages at the end of 2003 and the start of 2004 could be heading for a shock when their special deals run out. Copyright:...

IN BRIEF: Help for overseas investors.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... An online service for overseas property investors has been launched to help people find the best places to invest their money. Invest2Gain.co.uk helps potential investors make informed choices on where to put their money to get the best...

IN BRIEF: Skipton extends services in NI.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Skipton has extended its mortgage services to Northern Ireland. The society, which already lends in the province through its subsidiary Amber Homeloans, will now also offer its products to borrowers through mortgage brokers, estate agents...

IN BRIEF: Hometrack appoints CEO.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Hometrack has appointed Simon Allen as chief executive officer. For the past seven years he has been vice-president of international operations at Capital One. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: Crown earns high rating.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Fitch Ratings has given Crown Mortgage Management UK a positive rating, with its UK commercial mortgage ratings being the second highest possible. Crown manages mortgage outsourcing for organisations including the Royal Bank of Scotland....

IN BRIEF: Coventry unveils online range.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Coventry has launched an online-only sub-prime product range via Premier Mortgage Service. Members of PMS can take advantage of a portfolio of three-year fixed rates in Coventry's near prime, extra- light and light ranges. Copyright:...

IN BRIEF: TMP to help chldren's hospice.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Claire House Children's Hospice is The Mortgage Partnership's charity of choice to support in 2007. TMP has pledged its support for the whole year. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

Are you looking for a mortgage or a remortgage in 2007?
January 8, 2007... The new year is well underway and it is traditional at this point to reassess priorities and aspirations. For some this will mean gym memberships, faddy diets and trips abroad. For others it will mean buying their first home or freshening up...

Commercial First streamlines its requirements.
January 8, 2007... Commercial First has changed its loan processing requirements and procedures to speed up the flow of information to brokers. Mortgage documentation including legal charges and terms and conditions will now be emailed to brokers with hard...

ANALYSIS: Marketwatch u 08.01.07.
January 8, 2007... Swaps have posted significant increases since the start of December. Short-term rates are up about 0.25% and longer term swaps are up almost 0.3%. I expect to see fixed rates increasing sharply over the coming weeks so get cracking with any...

Should single premium mortgage payment protection insurance be abolished?
January 8, 2007... Our experts disagree, with one saying single premium cover is a rip-off and the other saying it gives valuable protection at an affordable price Simon Burgess is managing director of Britishinsurance.com Let me ask an alternative...

ANALYSIS: Gearing up for a competitive year.
January 8, 2007... The end of one year and the beginning of the next is always an interesting time in the mortgage world as lenders' thoughts turn to hitting the targets in the new year. Although some lenders will have spent the last quarter of 2006 looking...

ANALYSIS: Strong sides absent from Premiership.
January 8, 2007... Banks are cheapest for mortgages according to one of those surveys of annual costs that emerge at this time of the year. According to financial research company Defaqto, in 2006 it was bank customers who got the best deals on mortgages....

ANALYSIS: Scots will learn from others' mistakes.
January 8, 2007... Last year saw the housing boom continue on a seemingly unstoppable spiral with Nationwide putting the annual price increase at 10.5%. Analysts are expecting house price inflation to slow this year, with Nationwide predicting inflation of...

ANALYSIS: 2007 Will be yet another strong year.
January 8, 2007... The British obsession with house prices continues unabated, with most newspapers coming up with predictions for the coming year. The doom merchants are filling column inches with forecasts that would have us all believe that this is the...

ANALYSIS: Cascading could land brokers in deep water.
January 8, 2007... Single lender cascading has the potential to be the next mis-selling scandal, fuelling the sort of compensation feeding frenzy that we've seen with endowment policies. We must act now. First we need to be clear what the Financial Services...

ANALYSIS: Political spotlight on empty B2L properties.
January 8, 2007... The phrase 'empty homes' used to describe abandoned properties in rundown areas which were uninhabitable and certainly not fit to rent out. But recent research shows that there is an increasing trend for buy-to- let investors to leave...

ANALYSIS: My key word for 2007 is standards.
January 8, 2007... It would be obvious of me to use this opportunity to look ahead to the next six months and map out the challenges the industry can expect to face. You may call me Mr Obvious. First up is payment protection insurance. In its market study,...

ANALYSIS: Debt problems will always be with us.
January 8, 2007... Already the doom-sayers are declaring we will see more personal insolvencies this year. Overspending during the festive period will force 30,000 people to declare themselves insolvent by April, says accountant Grant Thornton. The...

ANALYSIS: U-turn on PTA is a break for brokers.
January 8, 2007... January is normally a good month for serious business planning for the forthcoming year. But this year, brokers should add another activity - sadly, this is a regulatory review because of yet another government U- turn. I refer to...

ANALYSIS: I forecast that forecasts will be wrong.
January 8, 2007... It's the start of the new year and the media is full of predictions about the housing market in 2007. Everyone has a view. If you're worried about making predictions to clients about the housing market and getting it wrong, fear not - the...

ANALYSIS: Another great year for intermediaries.
January 8, 2007... As we launch into another year, resolutions will be made and broken. Some of those resolutions will be personal and some professional, and brokers and lenders will be hoping that 2007 will be a robust year. Trends show year-on-year...

ANALYSIS: Advice can make a critical difference.
January 8, 2007... The news that one in 17 people lose their homes after being diagnosed with cancer was the most shocking message of many that came out of recent Macmillan Cancer Support research. Also, one in six of those diagnosed have difficulty keeping...

ANALYSIS: A great time to get involved with HIPs.
January 8, 2007... Last year was an interesting one from a Home Information Pack perspective, with more ups and downs than a big dipper. For me, the low point was not the government's U-turn on Home Condition Reports or the Council of Mortgage Lenders'...

ANALYSIS: Variety is not the key to B2L success.
January 8, 2007... Last year saw a huge increase in the number of buy-to-let products on offer. The Business Mortgage Company has some 384 products listed, representing a massive uplift from the 156 on offer just two years ago - and we still have a similar...

ANALYSIS: Choose your partners with great care.
January 8, 2007... Choosing the right partner can be fraught with difficulties. You only have to look at divorce statistics to see how it can go wrong. Fortunately, choosing a packaging partner in secured loans doesn't have to be so fraught and time spent...

ANALYSIS: Equity release sector is in good shape.
January 8, 2007... Final lending figures for 2006 are expected to show a positive move was made by the equity release market with current estimates being in the region of #1.5bn - the first significant increase we have seen in the past few years. To some...

ANALYSIS: Break the boom and bust service cycle.
January 8, 2007... It's a new year offering new challenges and I bet you can't wait to get stuck in. But hold on. Perhaps we ought to do things differently in 2007. How about starting with Treating Customers Fairly and moving the idea onto something...

LETTER: Only fair to praise service at Alliance and Leicester.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Andrew Botte I'm the first to shout about a lender when service is poor so I think it only fair to praise occasionally. Alliance & Leicester has impressed me. I put a case into it on December 19 and had a mortgage offer by...

LETTER: Burgess' double standards were breathtaking to me.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Andrew Weir I hope I'm not alone in my feelings on this subject but I feel compelled to a recent article (Mortgage Strategy December 18) in which the double standards displayed by Simon Burgess were breathtaking. On one hand he...

LETTER: Halifax contacts clients direct to arrange transfers.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Jason Simpson Much has been made of Halifax's payment of proc fees for product transfers. But what has not been publicised is that it now has a call centre which contacts clients directly to arrange product transfers. I...

LETTER: Brokers must provide clients with a choice of solicitors.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Alan Dring In a letter last year (Mortgage Strategy December 11) John Sparks expressed dismay at the poor service provided by many solicitors undertaking free conveyancing on behalf of lenders and suggested that lenders need to give...

LETTER: Why shouldn't I join the game of fleecing the innocent?(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... Name and address supplied I read recently that Paul Gray, acting chairman of HM Revenue & Customs and VAT, is entitled to a pension pot of #1.7m. How reassuring, especially if your name is Paul Gray. Strange then that this morning I...

LETTER: I don't understand Richard Griffiths' stance on VAT.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Ian Dalzell While I agree that it was somewhat lax on the part of Network Data not to warn its advisors that VAT could be payable on their membership fees, I do not understand where Richard Griffiths is coming from. Where brokers...

LETTER: Accord Mortgages has not raised SVR by more than BoE.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Linda Will I was a little surprised to see in Peter Mounty's comments (Mortgage Strategy December 4) that Accord Mortgages has been criticised for raising its SVR by more than the Bank of England rise - in fact, very surprised as...

LETTER: My prediction is many things will remain same among pundits.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... From Tim Lee Having grabbed a few minutes over the Christmas break to catch up on reading my copies of Mortgage Strategy, I noticed that the December 18 issue seemed to have more than its fair share of predictions for the coming year....

ALIVE AND KICKING: Game plan.
January 8, 2007... The advent of broker alliance Concordia has led to predictions of the imminent death of mortgage clubs but they are still going strong and many have big ambitions, says Harvey Jones Once again, the death of the mortgage club is being...

ALIVE AND KICKING: It's unlikely lenders will favour one grouping.
January 8, 2007... Jon O'Brien is operations director at the Professional Mortgage Packagers Alliance The history of mortgage clubs goes back to the roots of intermediary-based mortgage lending, to the days when the major life companies first established...

ALIVE AND KICKING: Clubs will have to start earning their keep.
January 8, 2007... Martin Reynolds is director of corporate accounts at edeus The first thing to say about mortgage clubs - or 'multi-lender programmes' or whatever the marketing team has decided to call them this week - is don't believe the spin. For a couple...

Brokers must reassess partners as distribution models change.
January 8, 2007... Ian Giles is director of marketing at Kensington Mortgages Americans may ride in elevators, walk along sidewalks and go on vacations but the only difference between them and their British counterparts who get in a lift, stick to the pavement...

FEATURE: Tough on cover.
January 8, 2007... Regulation has been good for firms that sell insurance along with mortgages but the FSA must clamp down on those not playing by the rules, says Simon Burgess Two years ago, the insurance market had something of a Wild West feel about it....

COMMENT: End of the B2L honeymoon in sight.
January 8, 2007... Kevin Paterson takes a weekly look at the latest developments in the market and brings you what's hot and what's not in the world of mortgages The buy-to-let sector has enjoyed stability over the past decade but Allsops, the country's...

COMMENT: Buyers don't know how lucky they are.
January 8, 2007... A recent poll found that many home buyers are green when it comes to understanding what goes on in the house buying process. The poll, conducted for an organisation I have never heard of with the catchy name of the Council for National...

COMMENT: HoC bolsters Q4 network growth.
January 8, 2007... The number of AR firms in mortgage networks is growing but expansion among smaller networks is slow which might provoke a strategic rethink over time, says Richard Griffiths The table below shows that there were 2,933 appointed...

COMMENT: Interest turns to interest-only deals.
January 8, 2007... With the FSA's thematic work on interest-only mortgages poised for publication the focus is on these deals so advisers must ensure they are playing it straight, says Bill Warren Are interest-only mortgages a time bomb? This has been a...