APR 2015 – The new seconds market
The second charge market has probably never had more support from the world of first mortgages. Back in the day when seconds were a £6bn industry, customers were being sourced directly from Ocean TV, a mass of press advertising and leads from an unsecured market that sold on their “fails”. Most of the tabloids’ profits […]
APR 2015 – Not helping ourselves
Recent weeks have seen the FCA issue a series of documents, which continue to challenge how well the lending sector is performing and the intention to direct significant FCA resource at banks and mortgage lenders in particular. This started with a guidance consultation following a review that looked at risks to customers from performance management […]
APR 2015 – Now is the time for remo
One of the near certainties as the General Election gets nearer is that it will be a close-run thing. A new coalition looks less likely with confidence and supply agreements being the order of the day. Should this arise, the biggest casualty will our capital markets and funding cost will have to rise. So although […]
APR 2015 – Fees at any price
At a time when inflation is running at 0% and wages are increasing at less than 2% it takes a special type of organisation to propose increasing its costs by 8.5%, when many of its customers are struggling to make profits and rebuild their balance sheets. Many broker firms would like to increase their IT […]
FCA proposes new processes for complaints and buy-to-let
Complaints handling: The FCA issued a consultation on overhauling the complaints process. The main changes it proposed are:
MAR 2015 – Planning for a Plan
As we now enter the real start of the general election campaign, the political parties are beginning to increase their commitments to the construction of a significant number of new homes. We have another few weeks where the coalition can use the Whitehall machine then “purdah” kicks in and they are cast out to operate […]
MAR 2015 – Difficult decisions
The Financial Policy Committee meets again on 24th March 2015, 6 days after George Osborne delivers the final budget of this government. Having undoubtedly calmed the house price inflation that was troubling the committee at its last meeting, they will be trying to establish if it was the Stamp Duty changes, their intervention on LTI […]
MAR 2015 – Why is protection a hard sell?
Post the PPI scandal should more consumers take out mortgage protection and what are the benefits of doing so? Protection has long been a product that has to be sold, evidenced by the fact that few consumers make appointments to discuss such needs and most that is sold is linked to their mortgage. The one […]
FCA confirms policy proposals for 2015/16 regulatory fees
The FCA proposed its 2015/16 policy for regulatory fees and levies in the form of a consultation.
FEB 2015 – Boys and their Toys
The responses to the financial crisis and the conclusion that the regulatory structures had failed, meant that politicians had to be seen to do something. Part of the solution was to introduce the Financial Policy Committee that has been given a range of tools to ensure that in addition to the Monetary Policy Committee controlling […]
