Tougher mortgage rules on the cards November 25, 2009 THE TREASURY has unveiled plans for tougher regulation of the mortgage market to better protect borrowers. Under the proposals, the scope of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) would be extended to include buy-to-let and second-charge mortgages. And borrowers would be protected when lenders sell on mortgage books to third parties. Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Exchequer Secretary said, [...]
PARAGON TO RESUME NEW LENDING November 24, 2009 Buy-to-let lender Paragon has said it is becoming more confident of resuming lending to new customers as it reported an annual pre-tax profit £54.3m. The group has not lent to new mortgage borrowers since February last year.
Mortgage lending rises five per cent due to time of year November 19, 2009 MORTGAGE lending ticked up by five per cent in October, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), although this was mainly down to seasonal factors. Lending rose to £13.5bn in October, compared to £12.9bn in September, the CML said, although it was still down 27 per cent on the £18.5bn that was lent to [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 17, 2009 Neptune Investment ManagementThe fund management boutique has appointed Robert Pickering, the former chief executive of blue-blooded bank JP Morgan Cazenove, to its board of directors. Pickering qualified as a solicitor with Allen & Overy in 1984 and joined Cazenove the following year. He spent a total of 23 years with the firm and was appointed [...]
Amount of repossessions is set to go up November 12, 2009 FEWER homes will be repossessed this year than previously forecast, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday, but the body expects 2010 to see more repossessions. The CML lowered its forecast for the second time this year and now anticipates that 48,000 homes will be repossessed in 2009, just 8,000 more than in 2008. [...]
CML: breakup of banks won’t lead to more lending November 10, 2009 MORTGAGE lenders have warned that the government’s banks breakup will fail to stimulate lending and even predict “stagnation” in the housing market next year. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) poured cold water on hopes that the carve up of RBS and Lloyds and the resurrection of brands like Williams & Glyn’s and Trustee Savings [...]
CBA reports strong markets November 8, 2009 Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s second-biggest lender, reported a strong first-quarter profit last night with business improving across the board, sending its shares sharply higher. CBA, also Australia’s largest mortgage lender, said in a trading update that cash net profit was about A$1.4bn (£0.77bn) as home-loan growth and stronger equity markets drove earnings.
US banking failures top 120 for the year November 8, 2009 United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators this weekend and its operations were acquired by East West Bancorp, also active in both nations. East West said the transaction made it the second-largest independent bank in California. Based in Pasadena, East West has 137 US branches, [...]
QE has worked it’s time to wind it down November 5, 2009 IT is nonsense to believe that quantitative easing has had no effect on the economy. It has prevented a collapse in the money supply, which would have triggered a collapse in output. It has also led to a surge in asset prices and started to fuel new bubbles in Britain and abroad, which is why [...]
Northern Rock unveils surge in mortgage loans November 4, 2009 NORTHERN Rock saw improved trading in the third quarter, with encouraging trends on bad loans, and forecast a “significant improvement” in the second half of the year. But the state-owned lender, which is being split into two in readiness for a sale, warned that conditions in the mortgage and housing markets remained subdued. “House price [...]