Top five articles of last week:
ASU – 6 working days left until the ban
Abbey tweaks fast track; makes further changes to interest-only criteria
Adviser banned for £1.3m mortgage fraud
Advisers to repay £1 each after £3m property scam
RBS restricts interest-only criteria; NatWest reintroduces interest-only option
Changing criteria
Abbey for Intermediaries will now require income evidence for fast track and will only accept specific repayment vehicles on interest-only deals, as part of its latest policy changes.
Property scam
Two financial advisers serving prison time for their roles in a £3m property scam have been ordered to pay back just £1 each.
£1.3m fraud
On Tuesday, a financial adviser was fined £95,200 and banned by the FSA for knowingly submitting mortgage applications in his own name which contained false information and other failures.
RBS joins bandwagon
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has restricted its interest-only lending to borrowers with a minimum income of £50,000 and who have banked with it for a minimum of three months.
Countdown begins
LV=’s Martin Sincup, looks at how the Competition Commission’s ruling on the sale of PPI will affect mortgage brokers.
Beginning of the end?
In this week’s Market Watch, we asked three housing experts how much longer it will be before interest-only deals become a truly niche product?
Future for FTBs?
In her latest blog for Mortgage Solutions, Melanie Bien examines the big problems facing first-time buyers in the market.
Back in recession
The UK is back in recession, according to the latest growth projections from the OECD, while the recovery in the G7 economies remains ‘fragile’.
Megafine!
This week the FSA hit private bank Coutts with an £8.75m fine. Here we count down the ten largest fines the FSA has ever issued.
And finally…top tweets:
Stephen Hayter @myhomemove
SDLT exemption is dead, long live the NewBuy Scheme
Henry Pryor @HenryPryor
Busy @grantshapps must be losing patience with foolish house builders who seem to be avoiding his #NewBuy scheme.
Prince Charles @Charles_HRH
Text from Mr Clegg: “Cold pasty for breakfast. Doctor’s put me on a low VAT diet”. #pastygate
Mehdi Hasan @ns_mehdihasan
“I don’t care about this at all.” Best line of the night from Alexei Sayle on pasty row. #bbcqt
