Mortgage Strategy articles from May 2009

Mortgage Strategy archives from May 2009

COMMENT: Joined-up thinking required.
May 4, 2009... I am the guest editor of this issue of Mortgage Strategy, having traded my chief executive officer's hat at London & European for the editor's crown. It makes a pleasant change to be the one asking the questions rather than answering...

FRAUD: FSA probing 350 brokers for suspicious activity.
May 4, 2009... The Financial Services Authority is investigating 350 suspicious mortgage brokers under its Information From Lenders project. Lenders have referred 350 brokers since the scheme was launched in 2006 and the regulator has issued fines worth...

Contract leaves Network Data ARs guessing over pipeline commission.
May 4, 2009... Appointed representatives of Network Data Limited and Mortgage Broking Services Limited who decided to transfer to Lighthouse Group last week are still in the dark about what will happen to their pipeline commission. Brokers were given...

Trigold profits plummeted by 80% last year.
May 4, 2009... Trigold saw its profits fall by more than three-quarters in 2008. This was revealed in a letter sent by the sourcing system's chairman Peter Birch to shareholders in the run-up to its merger with Crystal Software Solutions to create...

STRAW POLL: Brokers opt for long-term fixes.
May 4, 2009... A whopping 76% of Mortgage Strategy Online readers say they would recommend that their clients take out long-term fixed rate mortgages. With the base rate at 0.5% it can only go up so the advice from the likes of Ray Boulger, senior...

NEGATIVE EQUITY: CML challenged on negative equity.
May 4, 2009... The number of home owners facing negative equity could be closer to three million than the 900,000 estimated by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Forecaster Calnea Analytics provides property market information to lenders, surveyors and...

MORTGAGE APPROVALS: Mutuals see approvals leap to #1.5bn in March.
May 4, 2009... Mortgage approvals by building societies more than doubled in March, climbing to their highest level since November 2008. The Building Societies Association says there were #1.5bn worth of mortgage approvals in March compared with #742m in...

EQUITY RELEASE: Clients missing out on drawdown.
May 4, 2009... Key Retirement Solutions says the majority of consumers looking for equity release deals are still failing to investigate drawdown products. Safe Home Income Plans last week revealed that the amount of equity release plans taken out has...

CONVEYANCING: Conveyancers in remortgage service alliance.
May 4, 2009... Countrywide has teamed up with a range of conveyancing specialists to launch a remortgage service for lenders called Secure Remortgage. The joint venture involves Countrywide, MyHomeMove, HL Interactive and Barnetts. Paul Creffield,...

LENDERS: Costly UK funds mean Irish FTBs get better deals.
May 4, 2009... Halifax has cited the high cost of funding in the UK as the reason it cannot offer first-time buyers in this country the 2.9% rate it offers in Ireland. The lender, part of Lloyds Banking Group, is offering a two-year fixed rate of 2.9%...

PROTECTION: Income cover and HIV protection from PruProtect.
May 4, 2009... PruProtect has launched two income protection products and extended its life cover to those living with HIV. The Primary Cover and Comprehensive Cover products both come with the Vitality programme, which means premiums can go down but...

EQUITY RELEASE: Concern over equity release advice.
May 4, 2009... Which? last week revealed that the early findings of a mystery shopping exercise on the quality of advice provided by equity release advisers are disappointing. The consumer group started its research into equity release advice in April...

LENDERS: Profits leap at Santander's UK banks.(Financial report)
May 4, 2009... Santander's UK banking arm has seen its pre-tax profits for Q1 jump by more than a quarter compared with the same period last year. The Spanish banking giant's results are the first to factor in the performance of all three of its UK...

IN BRIEF: FSA bans London broker for application fraud.(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... The Financial Services Authority has banned Tower Hamlets-based mortgage adviser Zia Chowdhury for certifying client identities for fraudulent mortgage applications. He also operated his firm, Express Financial, without FSA approval. ...

IN BRIEF: Sales forces linked under Scottish Widows brand.(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... Scottish Widows and Clerical Medical intermediary sales forces are to combine under the Scottish Widows brand, resulting in the loss of 305 jobs. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: London homes shortage drives speedier sales.(Brief article)
May 4, 2009... A shortage of properties in central London is driving quick sales and some price stabilisation, says Cluttons. It says many would-be sellers have put off marketing their homes, worried about lower than expected valuations. Copyright:...

FIRST-TIME BUYERS: Parental equity could help more first-timers.
May 4, 2009... The industry should consider developing products that allow first-time buyers to tap into the equity locked in their parents' homes. This was the conclusion of research conducted by Peter Williams for the Building Societies Association...

COMPLIANCE: Advisers learn about TCF by playing computer game.
May 4, 2009... More than 2,000 financial advisers have been trained in the dark art of Treating Customers Fairly by playing a computer game. Compliance firm The Consulting Consortium is attempting to inject some excitement into compliance training and...

Exact says it can help societies get ratings up again.
May 4, 2009... Exact is out to prove Moody's wrong in its downgrading of building societies, offering to help them get their ratings up. The mortgages services specialist is offering to perform credit asset quality assessments on affected societies'...

EQUITY RELEASE: Mentoring on equity release.
May 4, 2009... An equity release specialist has set up a mentoring service to help directly authorised brokers enter the sector. Simon Chalk, mortgage and equity release planner at Sheffield-based Mortgage Portfolio, says the service will not only tackle...

ANALYSIS: Marketwatch - 04.05.09.
May 4, 2009... Lending by big banks fell in March for the first time in four months, which is disappointing considering the green shoots we have seen recently Swaps plummeted last week. We saw some of the biggest declines I can remember, reversing many...

ANALYSIS: Free legals simply means no legals.
May 4, 2009... There's nothing new about promotions for free legals as lenders have been offering these on remortgage deals for years. It's easy to understand why - it makes remortgaging cheaper and easier for borrowers and fee-free deals are an easy...

ANALYSIS: HIPs need to be put out of their misery.
May 4, 2009... It won't come as too much of a surprise to regular readers of Mortgage Strategy to receive further confirmation that I'm anti-Home Information Packs. Neither was I swayed from this view by the positive outcome in favour of HIPs,...

ANALYSIS: We are living in benefit ignorance.
May 4, 2009... Stress, anxiety and depression are the biggest causes of long-term sickness, according to our research and with reports of rising redundancies and house prices continuing to drop, you can see why they're on the rise. Our research implies...

ANALYSIS: Hard to judge true value of property.
May 4, 2009... Equity release, like any lending, is based on the opinion of professional valuers, backed by comparable evidence of property sales completed in recent times. But in a market which some say is stagnant, while others talk of freefall, it is...

ANALYSIS: Lenders are coming out of hibernation.
May 4, 2009... Leaving aside an underwhelming Budget, it seems possible that a combination of previous government initiatives and marginally more benign conditions may be having a positive impact on lending levels. Recent Council of Mortgage Lenders figures...

ANALYSIS: Seeing the future of mortgages.
May 4, 2009... Research published last week by the Building Societies Association looks at what mortgages in 2020 will be like and how lenders will have to respond to changing consumer demands. The research says buyers will still need to save a...

ANALYSIS: Squeezing societies won't boost lending.
May 4, 2009... I loved the recent Council of Mortgage Lenders' lunch. Building societies were conspicuous by their absence apart from Nationwide, although it is bigger than all other societies combined, so in percentage terms the sector was well...

ANALYSIS: Brokers crucial in a confused market.
May 4, 2009... In the wake of the Budget, two things emerged that made it appear there are many things conspiring to make the current trading conditions even more difficult and confusing. The first was a report from Which? and the second was a speech by...

ANALYSIS: FTB schemes are valuable business.
May 4, 2009... The government's focus on providing affordable homes is gaining greater awareness. A number of schemes have been established to help primarily first-time buyers, provided their earnings are not over #60,000 a year. One of the core...

ANALYSIS: Budget has spurred first-timers to buy.
May 4, 2009... Remarkably, there is one group of people who seem to have been motivated by the Budget - first-time buyers. At Leadbay, we've seen a 50% rise in the number of them looking for mortgage advice since the Budget. Maybe this is a result...

ANALYSIS: Ratings agencies' methodology flawed.
May 4, 2009... The furore over Moody's mass downgrade of building societies continues and the more I look into this the more I believe that the ratings agency has over-reacted. At the very least it has not gone deep enough into the asset quality of the...

ANALYSIS: Help clients gain leasehold control.
May 4, 2009... You may have heard terms such as leasehold enfranchisement and rights to acquire emanating from legal circles. But how can you help clients gain control over their leasehold properties and potentially increase their value? Do you have...

LETTER: Mis-selling claims are best handled by expert.(Letter to the editor)
May 4, 2009... I wholeheartedly agree with Natalie Martin's article in the April 27 issue on claims management firms and the situation regarding unenforceable loans and credit cards. I only accept referrals from those I know understand the details of...

LETTER: My comments on Abbey were meant to be constructive.(Letter to the editor)
May 4, 2009... I was delighted to see that Ricky Okey, managing director of Abbey for Intermediaries and Alliance & Leicester Intermediaries, had reacted to my article in the April 20 issue by putting finger to keyboard and emailing your letters pages...

LETTER: FSA has allowed mortgage market to fall into anarchy.(Letter to the editor)
May 4, 2009... I was impressed by the recent comments from Michael White of Email Mortgages (Mortgage Strategy Online) regarding the destruction of advised sales by lenders and the fact that it is pointless to pour billions into the housing market if it is...

LETTER: Big respect to Wyles for his speech at the CML annual lunch.(Letter to the editor)
May 4, 2009... I was gladdened to read the story on Mortgage Strategy Online headlined 'FSA should not instil fear, says CML' which detailed the speech by Matthew Wyles, chairman of The Council of Mortgage Lenders, at the trade body's annual lunch. I...

FEATURE: Taking stock.
May 4, 2009... Our guest editor this week is Christopher Taylor, chief executive officer of London & European. Taking on the role of industry hack, Taylor talks to Nigel Stockton, sales director of mortgages at Lloyds Banking Group, about his plans for the...

SHADOW MPC: May 2009.
May 4, 2009... This month's decision: hold Melanie Bien Director, Savills Private Finance Decision: Hold Last month the Monetary Policy Committee was unanimous in its decision to hold the Bank of England base rate at 0.5% and also voted in...

COMMENT: At last there's some good news in the industry.
May 4, 2009... The rise in mortgage lending, increasing buyer interest and Stamp Duty holiday extension are small messages of hope I'm going to try harder than ever this week to think positive thoughts. I know this is somewhat out of character but here...

COMMENT: Networks must keep up strict AR supervision.
May 4, 2009... Principals must keep a close eye on ARs even in these tough times as they are responsible for anything that goes wrong You won't be surprised to hear that we are keeping a close eye on the financial condition of networks. In...

COMMENT: Trying hard to remain positive amid the gloom.
May 4, 2009... There are a few signs of recovery in the housing and mortgage markets which should give us all some hope I always try to be positive when writing my column for Mortgage Strategy as it helps counteract the negativity we are being bombarded...

COMMENT: Don't allow Tesco to jump queue on financial products.
May 4, 2009... As Tesco moves into the financial services sector brokers must fight back and remind clients of their value At the moment the chances of your life being disrupted by swine flu remain small. The much-feared pandemic may have reached...

COMMENT: Budget sums just don't add up.
May 4, 2009... It certainly wasn't a Budget to bank on but it's one the country's top earners will want to get away from. And I'm not talking about footballers opting to play in North America either. That would be ridiculous. After all, who would want to...

COMMENT: Consumer demand will keep brokers going.
May 4, 2009... Grim news from the British Bankers' Association last week that gross mortgage lending is down almost 50% on last year and will continue to decline. But don't pack your bags and get your coat just yet. We're in the middle of a fundamental...

COMMENT: Optimism is in the air.
May 4, 2009... I expected last month's gathering at The Council of Mortgage Lenders' annual lunch to be pretty morose. It certainly was last year and with the state of play now not much better, if not worse, I was expecting more doom and gloom. Maybe...

60 seconds with Peter Williams.
May 4, 2009... Peter Williams executive director IMLA How has the dynamic of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association changed? We have lost members. Non-bank lenders and smaller building societies have been excluded from government initiatives...

COMMENT: Life on the AR roller coaster.
May 11, 2009... Last week saw highs and lows for appointed representatives, the peak undoubtedly being the sale of Mortgage Intelligence to European Financial Solutions. By combining Mortgage Next and Mortgage Intelligence to form new Bournemouth-based...

BROKERS: 300 DA firms deserted the market in Q1 alone.
May 11, 2009... Figures from the Financial Services Authority reveal that more than 300 directly authorised mortgage companies threw in the towel and left the market in Q1 2009. The total number of DA firms conducting mortgage broking business fell...

DUAL PRICING: Banning dual pricing could kill off proc fees.
May 11, 2009... The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has warned that if lenders were banned from dual pricing it could backfire and result in proc fees disappearing. The trade body says it is working with the Financial Services Authority to...

NETWORKS: Creditors to pick liquidator for PNG next week.
May 11, 2009... Creditors of Premier Network Group have been contacted by an insolvency practitioner to appoint a liquidator for the network. Last week a letter was sent by Elwell Watchorn & Saxton LLP to all known creditors of PNG, which closed to new...

NETWORKS: ARs left hanging as Network Data transfer deal fails.
May 11, 2009... Appointed representatives of Network Data Limited and Mortgage Broking Services Limited were once again left in limbo last week as attempts to transfer them to another network failed. Network Data Holdings, the parent group of both...

STRAW POLL: Brokers are not sourcing utilities.
May 11, 2009... The majority of Mortgage Strategy Online readers have not started to branch out into offering utilities. A number of networks now provide access to utilities websites that bundle together household services such as heating, communications...

TECHNOLOGY: B2L tool features rental calculator.
May 11, 2009... eMoneyfacts has launched a free buy-to-let sourcing tool that includes a rental figure in the fact-find to automatically calculate whether clients qualify for products. The rental calculator works out if there is sufficient margin in the...

Harle to leave Mortgage Next as owner buys Mortgage Intelligence.
May 11, 2009... Mortgage Next's managing director Gemma Harle will be leaving the network as a result of parent group European Financial Solutions' purchase of Mortgage Intelligence last week. It was revealed on Wednesday that Mortgage Intelligence's...

SECURED LOANS: Graham Brent joins wife's firm.
May 11, 2009... Graham Brent, former managing director of secured loan brokerage Loans etc, is joining his wife at Orange Finance to develop its secured loan offering. The administrator was called in to Loans etc on April 15 and a sale agreement has now...

REGULATION: MPs talk tough on phoenix firms.
May 11, 2009... MPs are calling for a crackdown on phoenix firms and believe public confidence in the insolvency regime will be damaged unless prompt action is taken. A report by the parliamentary Business and Enterprise Committee, chaired by Conservative...

REGULATION: Row over role of Bank of England.
May 11, 2009... The Treasury and the Association of Independent Financial Advisers have come to blows over what the future role of the Bank of England should be. AIFA would like to see the Bank govern financial stability rather than the Financial...

First-time buyers think this is a good time to get on the ladder.
May 11, 2009... Signs of a pick-up in buyer confidence emerged last week, with Rightmove research showing that seven out of 10 first-time buyers think now is a good time to buy. And 43% of the 3,120 first-time buyers who responded to the survey are...

OVERSEAS PROPERTY: Buy-to-let investors look overseas.
May 11, 2009... Viva Costa International Mortgages says buy-to-let investors looking to branch out into overseas property accounted for three-quarters of the 40% increase in applications it has seen in the past year. The brokerage specialises in...

LENDERS: Bad debt jumps 50% at Lloyds group.
May 11, 2009... Lloyds Banking Group last week revealed that it saw a 50% rise in bad corporate debt in Q1 2009. This was mainly driven by exposure to HBOS' commercial property portfolios and worsening GDP in the UK and Ireland. As announced in...

IN BRIEF: Sustainable housing upturn remains elusive.(Brief article)
May 11, 2009... Savills says it has not yet seen any evidence of a sustainable improvement in the housing market, despite an uplift in residential sales in March. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

ANALYSIS: Marketwatch - 11.05.09.
May 11, 2009... We wait to see what Lloyds Banking Group will do with its brands but if some go direct-only at least there will be fewer dual pricing issues Swaps had a mixed week. One-year swaps fell to the lowest levels I have recorded whereas longer...

ANALYSIS: The swine flu virus and pig ignorance.
May 11, 2009... About four years ago the government and associated experts were talking up the latest pandemic, which back then was avian flu. Unusually, someone at the Financial Services Authority provided me with an apposite and memorable quote. ...

ANALYSIS: Shop around for protection value.
May 11, 2009... Rip-off Britain. In the years since that phrase was coined there have been countless examples of consumers receiving a raw deal, paying higher prices for goods and services than almost anywhere else in the world. Now, in difficult trading...

ANALYSIS: We need balanced debate, not bias.
May 11, 2009... I went to an equity release conference in London last week that unfortunately demonstrated the ignorance of some regarding this market and the lack of education about it. Speakers included MP John Gummer, chairman of the Association of...

ANALYSIS: First-time buyer leads can pay off.
May 11, 2009... If you bought 100 first-time buyer leads for a monkey - Cockney slang for #500 - how many would you need to convert to get your money back? Many advisers see first-time buyer leads as unplaceable but this impression could be misguided -...

ANALYSIS: Sentiment is upbeat but remains fragile.
May 11, 2009... Data from Nationwide revealed last week that consumer confidence in April rose more than in any month since April 2007. Confidence also seems to be strengthening in the housing market where leading estate agents are expressing surprise at...

ANALYSIS: Be in control as the tempest rages.
May 11, 2009... To say my feet have hardly touched the ground in the past couple of months would be a serious understatement. Last week I had the pleasure of experiencing the cut and thrust of life in the Mortgage Strategy offices during my stint as guest...

ANALYSIS: No surprise as rescue plans fail.
May 11, 2009... The news that only one household has been saved from repossession by the government's interventionist tactics may have surprised some but the reality is that the schemes launched in December were little more than spin. In fact, the plan...

ANALYSIS: Low rates cushion blow for borrowers.
May 11, 2009... Data published recently by the Council of Mortgage Lenders on mortgage arrears categorises these into three time periods - three to six months, six to 12 months and more than 12 months. Unsurprisingly all the trends are upwards, and have...

LETTER: MPPI benefits clients and brokers in a downturn.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... It came as no surprise to read last week that according to government figures only one household has been approved for its mortgage rescue scheme since January (Mortgage Strategy Online May 1). Like many other of the government's...

LETTER: Lenders should improve service in tough times.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... At this time of great difficulty for brokers trying to find products for their clients the service we are receiving from some lenders is not good enough, making the process harder than it should be. I applaud Mortgage Strategy's...

LETTER: Paterson's remarks on MPPI policies leave me puzzled.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... I would like to comment on Kevin Paterson's column in the April 27 issue of Mortgage Strategy in which he outlines the benefits of brokers selling mortgage payment protection insurance as he sees them. Some of what he writes fails to...

LETTER: Second charge lenders are fair to borrowers.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... A recent article by Nick Pearson, director of external affairs at Paymex Group, (Mortgage Strategy April 27) states that second charge lenders are too quick to repossess properties. I have evidence that contradicts this. The Finance and Leasing...

LETTER: CML is trying to shift blame for chaos onto others.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... I was agreeing with most of the comments made by Matthew Wyles, chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, at the trade body's recent annual lunch until I got to the final paragraph of your extract from his speech where he spoke about...

LETTER: Abbey BDMs are so streamlined I can't see them.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... I must comment on the letter from Ricky Okey, managing director of Abbey for Intermediaries and Alliance & Leicester (Mortgage Strategy April 27). He states that "there should be no doubt of our commitment to the intermediary market as we...

LETTER: New-build pricing muddle led me to pull out of deal.(Letter to the editor)
May 11, 2009... I recently reserved a new-build property in Warrington with a property developer at an agreed price of #361,950. I paid Barclays #445 to send a surveyor to value the property for mortgage purposes. The bank duly instructed a surveyor...

FEATURE: Trading places.
May 11, 2009... The crunch has shaken up the mortgage sector and many players have been on the move, so here's a handy catch-up on who's doing what and where The credit crunch has changed the mortgage world. The landscape that surrounded us for the past...

Fight back against adversity.
May 11, 2009... Kevin Paterson Sales and marketing director Assurant Intermediary We live in extraordinary times and since August 2007 our industry has been in the eye of a global storm. We were the first sector to enter a recession that has been faster...

Industry has done itself proud in unprecedented conditions.
May 11, 2009... Andrew Montlake director Coreco Group The one thing we can say about the past 18 months is that the recession has made us look at things differently. The fall in the market means nobody can paper over cracks anymore and more than...

Review your business model.
May 11, 2009... Let's face it, this is not the ideal time to be setting up a business. Banks aren't even lending to residential borrowers who want to invest in a tangible asset with a 25% deposit, so it is hardly surprising that venture capital is even...

COMMENT: Help holiday landlords keep up with the news.
May 11, 2009... Earn brownie points by keeping your landlord clients informed of developments that could affect them The recent Budget held little excitement for those of us in the mortgage industry. The extension of the Stamp Duty holiday was pretty...

COMMENT: Delving into the wacky world of British gardens.
May 11, 2009... Country gardens are a joy, especially when they allow eccentric owners to express their individuality Although I love surveying in London I miss exploring the gardens of Britain. The Victorians are to blame. What with gentlemen's...