October 16 – Fishing for profit
The challenges facing the larger mortgage lenders could not be more intense. With house prices coming off their peak in London, the start of the withdrawal of Help to Buy, more new entrants and larger players like HSBC and TSB taking market share, base rate at record lows and having to manage ring-fencing and horizon […]
October 2016 – Need for Advice
The Mortgage Market Review rightly recognised the need to establish, through advice, not what the customer thinks they want but what they genuinely need, as being a core cornerstone of the future market. The move from the pre-MMR position of many customers merely selecting the cheapest product via a non-advised offering to receiving advice has […]
October 2016 – Open Season
The political and regulatory agenda shows no signs of slowing down. With Theresa May now setting out her vision for her new government, the core promise was that a new United Kingdom with renewed sovereign powers would have a government prepared to intervene more in markets where it sees reasonable justification to resolve issues. The […]
October 2016 – Ageing population
The FCA seems to be taking positive steps in its work on the ageing population. It launched this project at the beginning of the year by issuing a discussion paper inviting the industry to suggest the focus of its work. Following the feedback, it received, the regulator has now provided an update. It is encouraging […]
September 2016 – Introducing standards
With the introduction and upcoming expansion of the Senior Managers’ Regime, and diminishing of direct supervision, there is an increasing need to move towards self-regulation. Firms will need to ensure responsibilities are clearly allocated and as the consequences for misconduct will be higher, there will no doubt be a strengthening of processes. One area which […]
September 2016 – A bounce in our step
With the news that the July CML gross lending figures came in at £21.4bn, it gave me a bit of a bounce in my step. With gross lending having grown solidly through 2013 to 2015, we were hopeful at the start of the year of perhaps a rise from the 2015 number of £220bn to […]
August 16 – Mortgage Prisoners
It’s been over two years since the Mortgage Market Review was implemented and there is still an issue with borrowers being unfairly trapped in their existing mortgage. Throughout 2014 lenders were criticised for failing to implement the FCA’s transitional arrangements, which allowed them to waive the affordability checks for their own, and other lenders’, customers […]
August 16 – A Big Package
The long awaited cut in base rates has happened. For a long time we all thought “the only way was up”, only to be confounded by the British people finding their voice and giving London centric politicians and Brussels bureaucrats a bloody nose. The result however is beginning to look like an attempt at economic […]
July 16 – The future of green homes
With fossil fuels a limited resource, global energy prices are expected to continue to rise. Despite the relatively stable price of domestic gas and electricity over the past five years there is an upward pressure on household energy bills. Together with pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will over time see a greater demand […]
July 16 – Courting normality
Whilst the story of BREXIT dominates the headlines and our two main political parties jockey for control over future power, for the vast majority of people the world is just the same. We still go to work, get paid, pay our bills, buy things and try to make the world a better place. We will […]
June 16 – Significant AMI Win on FCA Fees
AMI made a series of objections in responding to this year’s FCA fees consultation. As one of only two organisations to object to the additional consumer buy to let (CBTL) fees, AMI is pleased that the FCA has agreed to remove the CBTL periodic fee and the CBTL FOS levy for already authorised firms. This […]
June 16 – Competitive Us
At heart of the FCA competition review has to be that we end up with a mortgage market which works even better for consumers. The 2016 mortgage market must be seen as having a great variety of products at prices which have never been seen before. Perhaps only in the heady days of 2006 have […]
