Aug 15 – Property Hotspots
The National Crime Agency and our Prime Minister are suddenly concerned that the UK has become the natural home for a lot of money which might not be entirely honestly gained. The influx of this cash from overseas into London residential property, often through a series of shell companies, is a genuine cause for concern. […]
Aug 15 – FSCS Levies
Those on the receiving end of FCA fee bills will now know how much the FSCS levy for mistakes in the Pensions market is costing them. With huge increases in the total fee bill, it is the Life and Pensions bill that is causing stress on broker bank balances. Whilst the FCA fee rise was […]
July 15 – Advice and Distribution
The FCA post-MMR thematic sets out a number of areas of concern. All firms will need to read the full text and consider what changes they need to make to their sales processes, quality checking and also the training and procedures for their advisers. In summary, some adviser struggled to understand how much information on […]
July 15 – The technology revolution
With the arrival of the Apple watch, the digital revolution marches on. Even if Google glasses did not quite match expectations, this is a case of the product solution being too early in their evolution to be accepted. Technology is often an area where early adapters beat the true innovators. For those who have worked […]
July 15 – Proc fees: the only way is up!
The deep industry debate on procuration fees has 4 dimensions. What we must all remember however is that these are commercial arrangements between firms and must be left in that competitive space. It is important that individual lenders and intermediaries make their own judgements about the incentives and rewards needed to operate their risk based […]
July 15 – Onward and Upwards
The UK economy continues to look positive following George Osborne’s second budget of 2015. Economic growth is predicted to continue in the positive, within a range of 2.5% to 3.0% per annum for the near term. This is a strong positon given conditions in other developed nations and the built in uncertainty of both a […]
July 15 – The FCA thematic on advice post-MMR
The FCA has published its long-awaited thematic report on advice and distribution, following the Mortgage Market Review (MMR). This report is a further important milestone in the MMR journey. It sets out with some clarity the things that the industry needs to improve upon and acknowledges areas where we have made good progress. This document […]
Your 2015/16 invoice for FCA fees
Members will be aware from our earlier messages and the considerable noise in the trade press that they are likely to see a significant rise in their FCA invoice in 2015.
June 15 – Why has the remortgage market not taken off?
With mortgage rates at lifetime lows, which in my case is a lot of years, it is absurd that remo volumes remain firmly rooted at low levels. What is it that is preventing more borrowers from moving to lower rates? What is becoming clear with all the work AMI is doing on mortgage and property […]
June 15 – What should an ERC be?
When AMI first reviewed the European Mortgage Directive text, we felt that the sense of the text meant significant change for UK lenders. We were surprised when the FCA indicated that they were not intending to change their rules. AMI spends significant time looking at the rules that directly impact brokers, and less on the […]
