Top five articles of the week:
Leeds BS changes interest-only criteria
Abbey tweaks affordability assessment
FSA strips Scottish IFA of permissions
Abbey cuts broker fee on some interest-only ports
Bogus solicitor jailed for £8m mortgage fraud
Domino effect
On Monday, Leeds Building Society became the third lender in under a fortnight to slash its maximum LTV on interest-only loans, this time from 70% to 50% for deals where the repayment strategy is the sale of the property.
Bogus solicitor
A “sophisticated” fraudster who headed up a criminal gang was jailed for seven years on Tuesday for defrauding high street banks out of almost £8m through multiple fraudulent mortgage applications.
Misleading ads
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned property website PropertyWikia.com from advertising property sales opportunities, including £2,000 commission on property sales.
End of an era
In an interview with Sky News, the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Philip Hampton claimed that the era of big banking bonuses is over.
Puberty
“We have seen the market through the teething of the ’90s (17% interest rates were as painful as incisors cutting through), watched the growth spurt (buy-to-let booms of the early noughties) and the “first steps of FSA regulation…” Our newest blogger. Lea Karasavvas compares the mortgage market to adolescence, spots and all.
Huge losses
Both Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland reported losses in their annual results this week. RBS’ mortgage market share remained static at 10% while Lloyds’ market share dropped by 2% to 20% in 2011.
Wish list
In this week’s Market Watch, AMI, Lloyds Banking Group and Countrywide tell us their wish list for the Spring Budget.
We are to blame
On Friday, the FSA’s acting enforcement head, Tracey McDermott said the financial services industry is failing to heed the lessons of previous failures and “has no-one but itself to blame” for low consumer confidence in the sector.
And finally…top tweets
@Mortgage_Stu Reply
Open my 3yo daughter sings along to tunes in the car. Introduced her to Ian Dury. Hope she stopped singing ‘HIT MEEEEEEE’ when I dropped her off at school.
@Charles_HRH
President Sarkozy on the phone. Says he “hates Pancake Day, it’s crêpe”. At least one thinks that’s what he said.
@EdinMortAdv
Broker broker burning bright even when the rates get tight. Sorry to all Blake fans.
@JoKingDevon
Being a mortgage broker right now feels like a supermarket manager who’s just had his shelves cleared of stock!
@JonCudby
Yorkies have gone from 7 chunks to 5. They’ll be letting girls eat them next.
