Carney ready to clamp down on housing bubble March 28, 2014 TOUGHER lending criteria could be in place as soon as June if a housing bubble emerges, the Bank of England’s financial policy committee (FPC) said yesterday. The panel, led by Mark Carney, does not believe a bubble is inflating, but wants to reassure markets it will nip any emerging risks in the bud. From next [...]
Aldermore enters securitisation market in £330m mortgage deal March 25, 2014 CHALLENGER bank Aldermore is selling off £330m of prime residential mortgages in its first ever securitisation, the lender said yesterday. The bank wants to reduce its reliance on the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and raise funds to increase its lending volumes. Mortgage-backed securities got a bad name in the financial crisis [...]
Only one in 20 buyers not fixing mortgages as rates start to rise March 24, 2014 MORE than 95 per cent of new home buyers are taking fixed mortgages, as the property market surges and interest rates begin to creep upwards, according to mortgage lenders. The Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) says that 19 in every 20 people were choosing fixed rather than variable rate mortgages in February, up from fewer than four [...]
Co-op Bank says it needs a further £400m March 24, 2014 The beleagured Co-op Bank has announced something of a combshell this morning: it needs to find another £400m of capital to cover unexpected costs and charges relating to misconduct and poor documentation. The lender's management has uncovered the costs, which come predominantly from compensation for PPI misselling, poor customer treatment relating to mortgages and breaching [...]
London house prices pull further ahead of regions March 13, 2014 HOUSE prices in the City soared by more than any other London borough, while the capital’s market continued to blast ahead of the rest of the UK, new figures showed yesterday. It came as mortgage lending shot up by more than a third in the last year, led by high loan-to-value mortgages. London prices increased [...]
Homeowners told to switch to fixed deals ahead of rate rise March 5, 2014 THE BANK of England is almost certain to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5 per cent today – yet with lenders increasingly expecting a rise to come within the next year, rates on mortgages and credit card are creeping upwards. The average credit card annual percentage rate (APR) has climbed to 18.17 per cent [...]
How one million homeowners have only known ultra low rates March 4, 2014 MORE than one million first time buyers have jumped on the property ladder in the five years since the Bank of England cut interest rates to 0.5 per cent, raising fears that borrowers are unprepared for a rate rise in the years to come. It is five years to the day since the base rate [...]
Virgin Money’s profits jump on mortgage loans March 4, 2014 BOOMING mortgage lending drove up profits in 2013 at challenger bank Virgin Money, the lender said yesterday. The bank, which was built out of the remains of Northern Rock, made a pre-tax profit of £179.4m in 2013, up 23.5 per cent on the year. Mortgage balances jumped 17 per cent on the year to £19.6bn, [...]
The secret of mutuals: Price beats ethics every time February 26, 2014 Britain’s building societies are enjoying a boom in new business, as big banks have cut back lending since the financial crisis. Their local, ethical image is often trumpeted as the reason why – they are owned by their customers, a refreshing contrast from those scandal-hit bankers. Certainly they are doing something right. This morning three [...]
Soaring number of low deposit mortgage deals February 24, 2014 NEW FIGURES released this morning suggest that the number of products for the highest loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages has tripled since the surprise launch of the second phase of Help to Buy in October. The number of products available for buyers with only a five per cent deposit has soared from 43 to 132 in less [...]