ANALYSIS: What a difference five years makes.

(From Mortgage Strategy)

It is with some sadness that I post my final column for Mortgage Strategy this week as today is my first day working for the Association of British Insurers. Both the magazine and the industry have developed significantly in my time, and in both cases for the better - with the exception of the Mole anyway.

Looking back to September 2001, Strategy's introduction shared one trait with the later introduction of regulation - the success of both was doubted at the outset. Just as cynics said the market had neither the interest nor the news for a weekly broker newspaper, others doubted the workability of the Financial Services Authority …