Mortgage News
Interest-only clampdown leaves Accord firefighting
Accord, the intermediary arm of Yorkshire Building Society has had to delay the launch of its 75% and 85% LTV range until next Monday following an uplift in applications.
The lender was set to launch its new range today but a spokesman for the lender said that Accord became more competitive after several lenders re-priced upwards and Lloyds and Santander both changed their interest-only policies in the last week.
She said: “What kicked it all off was re-pricing because the big lenders all seemed to re-price upwards at around the same time and we did the same two weeks ago which bought us back in line.
“We had everything ready at launch and then exactly the same thing happened again and of course the interest-only announcements followed it. It’s fair to say that we have seen an uplift in interest-only applications after both Santander and Lloyds’ announced changes in this product area.
“We’re trying to be a responsible lender and balance volume with the service and that’s why we’re waiting until Monday before we launch.”
Accord said its 90% LTV products remain available.
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Michael Rogerson, director of Ashburton Financial Consultants added: “Brokers are securing a lot of business which needs to be inputted before changes come into force. This is why Accord is getting bigger peaks of business. This is likely to continue to happen while lenders review their stance on interest-only.”