Markets lap up easing of bank liquidity rules January 7, 2013 BANK shares jumped yesterday after regulators eased incoming liquidity rules, giving banks more time to build up their buffers as well as letting lenders use a wider range of instruments. The aim of the rules is to make sure banks have a buffer of liquid assets big enough to match outflows of cash in a [...]
Tough new funding rules next target on finance lobby hit list January 7, 2013 BANKS will spend the coming years pushing regulators to scrap incoming rules which will force them to match long term lending with long term funding, emboldened by their success in getting liquidity rules weakened, City A.M. has learned. The British Bankers’ Association spent several years arguing the Liquidity Coverage Ratio would force banks to reduce [...]
Lenders predict bridging loan spree in 2013 January 1, 2013 A DIFFICULT mortgage market will lead to an explosion in the use of short-term bridging loans, mortgage brokers said in a survey out this morning. Though mortgage lending is set to expand some 8.3 per cent in 2013, according to Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) predictions, the market will remain tight. This tightness will drive [...]
London house prices up £28k through 2012 December 20, 2012 HOUSE prices across the UK crept up through 2012, according to data out yesterday from property website Zoopla, with London leaping further ahead. Mortgage lending increased again in November, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed, with the first signs that the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) may be having an effect. Home purchase loans [...]
SAV Credit buying bank from Virgin to enter savings market December 18, 2012 CREDIT card lender SAV Credit is buying Church House Trust from Virgin Money in the first half of 2013, the two firms announced yesterday. Virgin Money bought Church House Trust in January 2010 because it wanted a banking licence, avoiding the arduous process of applying for one from scratch. But because it bought much of [...]
First-timers to be kept locked out of 2013 mortgage market December 17, 2012 MORTGAGE lenders will focus their attention on the safer, low loan-to-value (LTV) end of the credit market during 2013, research showed yesterday. Lenders will conserve their precious capital and boost their lending in the remortgage market, which will grow a quarter from around 310,000 transactions this year to almost 400,000 next year, according to data [...]
House prices up on high volume of transactions December 13, 2012 HOUSE PRICES managed to creep up in November, after the month saw uncharacteristically high activity. Prices were up 0.2 per cent on the month, according to data from LSL Property Services and Acadametrics, on the back of a five per cent rise in the number of transactions compared to last November. This put prices up 3.3 per [...]
British Bankers’ Association mulls merger in hunt for cash December 12, 2012 SUPERMARKET own-label ranges, package holidays and … City lobbying groups? Punters’ desire for value-for-money appears to be stretching further than ever in gloomy economic times. That’s the conundrum confronting my fellow City A.M. columnist Anthony Browne, recently installed as chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). Relinquishing its role in supervising the Libor-setting process [...]
Mortgage loans jump back after September dip December 12, 2012 MORTGAGE lending bounced back strongly in October, according to industry figures released yesterday, yet analysts remain unconvinced that the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) is delivering a sea change in the housing market. The total number of loans for house purchase climbed 13.8 per cent to 49,500, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders [...]
Decline in homeownership is the result of bonkers red tape December 12, 2012 AS ever, the census is chock-a-block with fascinating statistics, including about the major demographic shifts that this country is undergoing. London has become a European version of New York, a cosmopolitan, global melting pot. It also reveals a number of worrying trends. Just 64 per cent (14.9m) of households owned their own home in 2011, [...]