London’s newly-listed LendInvest scores £150m partnership with Barclays and HSBC August 16, 2021 Property finance asset manager LendInvest has announced a £150m lending collaboration with two of Britain’s biggest banks, just weeks after its £255m IPO on London’s AIM index. The new tie-up is geared towards financing UK property entrepreneurs and will see the British banks provide funding for short-term mortgages through LendInvest’s digital platform. It’s the first [...]
TSB profits bounceback from Covid lows as mortgage lending recovers July 29, 2021 Profits recovered from Covid lows at bank TSB, driven by the lender reporting lower loan-loss provisions as a wave of predicted defaults triggered by Covid failed to materialise and improved mortgage lending. The bank registered a net profit of £42.9m in the first half of this year compared to a loss of £65.5m in the [...]
Coutts secures B Corp ethical status July 28, 2021 Coutts has secured the sought-after B Corp status, the bank announced on Twitter. The certification attests companies uphold certain social and environmental performance standards, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. The private bank and wealth manager has a history spanning over three centuries and is known to be the banker for [...]
Rampant housing demand boosts Santander profits July 28, 2021 Strong mortgage lending boosted Santander’s profits in the first half of this year as demand in the UK housing market soared. Profits before tax at the lender were up more than fivefold to £751m, up from £148m in the same period last year. Higher net-interest income – the difference between what a bank receives from [...]
House prices to surge another £50,000 over next five years July 27, 2021 House prices are expected to surge another £50,000 over the next five years, further reducing affordability in the UK property market, according to new forecasts published today. Estate agent Savills predicts house prices will jump nine per cent this year, driven by the extended stamp duty holiday and prospective buyers rushing to purchase larger homes [...]
Starling Bank makes first acquisition in bid to expand lending July 26, 2021 British digital lender Starling Bank has struck a £50m deal for specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender Fleet Mortgages, in the first of an expected series of deals to drive growth. Starling, which last week said it was eyeing an IPO over the next two years, has finalised the cash and share deal for Hampshire-based Fleet Mortgages, for [...]
Criminal Commission consider report alleging Tom Hayes was wrongfully convicted for Libor rigging July 26, 2021 An academic paper that claims Tom Hayes was wrongfully convicted for rigging Libor interest rates is under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). It’s the latest development in an ongoing inquiry by the CCRC – the body responsible for investigating suspected miscarriages of justice – into the former trader’s case. The CCRC confirmed [...]
First-time buyers: Where do millennials stand on the property ladder? July 21, 2021 Around two-thirds of people aged in their 20s and 30s hope to buy a new home in the next five years, according to a survey. Some 66 per cent of people in their 30s and 67 per cent in their 20s are considering buying a property in the next five years, compared to 38 per [...]
Lenders set to increase interest-free periods on credit cards July 15, 2021 Households could be offered longer interest-free periods on credit cards over the summer, according to a survey of lenders. Banks and building societies also anticipate that mortgage availability to households will rise, according to the survey published by the Bank of England. The Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey is carried out every quarter to help it [...]
UK banks expect a rush of defaults in coming months July 15, 2021 UK banks expect defaults to rise over the coming months as households struggle to service debt taken on to cope with the financial pressures of the Covid crisis, new figures released today reveal. According to the Bank of England’s latest Credit Conditions Survey, banks expect default rates on unsecured lending – or credit card lending [...]