Regulator fines Clydesdale for botched mortgages September 26, 2013 Clydesdale Bank has been fined £8.9 million for failing to treat its mortgage customers fairly. The Financial conduct Authority (FCA) issued the fine after customers were not informed clearly their rights following the bank's miscalculation of repayments on over 42,500 mortgages. In April 2009, Clydesdale discovered an error in its repayment calculation method for customers [...]
RBS pins hopes of turnaround to profits on rising interest rates September 24, 2013 RISING interest rates would quickly make RBS billions of pounds, the bank’s finance chief revealed yesterday, raising hopes that the economic recovery will boost the taxpayer-backed lender. If rates are hiked one percentage point, incomes would rise £450m in the first year, £640m in the second and £860m in the third. And a gradual rise of [...]
New York Report: Stocks fall for a fourth straight session in US September 24, 2013 THE DOW and S&P 500 ended lower yesterday, extending their recent slide to a fourth session as worries over a possible US government shutdown added to investor caution. Although uncertainty remains over the Federal Reserve’s intentions to scale back its stimulus since its decision last week to leave its current programme unchanged, some of the [...]
Consumer confidence and personal deposits up as business borrowing increases September 24, 2013 (BBA) Personal deposits have risen by almost five per cent over the year to August, says the BBA. (Release) BBA statistics director, David Dooks said: These figures suggest that consumer confidence is growing. For the first time in four years, annual growth in household borrowing on credit cards and personal loans has turned positive and [...]
Buy-to-let specialist Paragon raises £273m in mortgage sale September 23, 2013 SPECIALIST lender Paragon completed a securitisation transaction yesterday, raising funds in the market to finance more lending, the group announced. Special purpose vehicle Paragon Mortgages 18 was made up of three tranches of assets, and came in at a total of £273m. The vast majority of the deal was made up of triple-A rated notes [...]
Bank of America prepares for court case over home loan row September 23, 2013 BANK of America will this week face claims Countrywide, which it owns, defrauded government mortgage underwriters from 2007. It is alleged Countrywide approved deficient home loans in a process called “Hustle”, before selling those loans on to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When the loans defaulted, those state-backed entities lost more than $1bn (£623m), with [...]
London leads UK as optimism on house prices rockets again September 19, 2013 BRITONS are more upbeat on house prices than at any point in the last three and a half years, according to the Knight Frank sentiment index out today, as the economy recovers. And they believe prices are rising at their fastest pace since 2009. More than one-fifth of those surveyed believe their house’s value has [...]
Bubble fears too high – the housing market is ordinary September 19, 2013 The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has announced that gross mortgage lending remained steady in August at an estimated £16.6bn. (Release) In July, the figure was £16.7bn and up 28 per cent from August 2012 (£13bn). Not unexpectedly, the CML highlighted that: Prospects for the UK economy continue to brighten, although there is a risk [...]
Ireland’s central bank lays down tougher goals on mortgage debt September 17, 2013 IRELAND’S central bank and bailout lenders set the country’s lenders tougher targets yesterday to solve a mortgage arrears crisis that has left one in five of all Irish homeowners unable to repay their loans. Ireland took an €85bn bailout in 2010 after rescuing its banks, whose easy lending had fuelled a credit bubble, and the [...]
Mortgage rates could be on the rise September 17, 2013 With rising costs and house price highs spooking homebuyers, shop around for a good deal NEWS that house prices in England have hit record highs – now 0.9 per cent higher than their previous peak in January 2008 – has heightened fears that the government’s Help to Buy subsidised mortgage scheme is fuelling a housing [...]