(In order) The best read stories last week:
Santander interest-only cap: The industry reacts
Osborne threatens to cap mortgage LTVs
The MS One to one with Virgin Money’s Jayne-Anne Gadhia
FSA to split regulatory function from April
Tesco Bank to launch mortgages by April
A quick round-up
Launch date
On Monday, Tesco Bank’s chief executive, Benny Higgins, suggested that its long-anticipated launch into the mortgage market could happen as soon as April this year.
In demand
Norwich & Peterborough withdrew its ten-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.99% less than two weeks after launching it due to unprecedented demand.
On the cards
Loan to Value caps were put back on the table on Tuesday as George Osborne told MPs the Bank of England could intervene to prevent another housing crisis.
Virgin Money
Virgin Money chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia talks lending plans, intermediaries and products with Mortgage Solutions editor Vicky Hartley.
Clean up costs
In an email sent to all RBS staff this week, CEO Stephen Hester confirmed that the bank accumulated clean-up costs of £38bn over the past three years.
Interest-only cap
Santander reduced its maximum Loan to Value on its interest-only residential deals from 75% to 50%.
Eyeing a return
Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds Banking Group revealed it is looking at extending sales of its protection products to intermediaries.
Dividing the masses
In her first blog for Mortgage Solutions since launching her marketing and PR agency, Bien Media, Melanie Bien examines how the rise of buy to let is generating as much negative reaction as good.
Base rate anniversary
The MPC held rates for the 35th consecutive month and increased its quantitative easing programme by £50bn this week. We asked three economists what the mortgage market will look like if the low interest rate environment continues.
Going it alone
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) announced that it has split from its sister body the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) to become a separate, independent organisation, headed up by Robert Sinclair.
And finally…top tweets
Tim Weller
£31.3m – amount RBS’s balance sheet has shrunk for every one of 19,200 hours for which Stephen Hester has been running it.
Kay McLellan
Moneysupermarket reckons the “average couple” spends £1,351 on Valentine’s Day – who the heck is this average couple?!
Henry Pryor
So another Italian bails out early this time ‘falling’ into a £6m lifeboat. Italian women must be curious as to what a real man looks like.
Andy Martinus
Is Chicken Curry Risotto a universally accepted dish or is this just a Farringdon thing?
