FSA warns firms on mis-sales risk of incentivised pay
Well, it’s only taken the FSA 12 years since the FSMA 2000 to realise that pressuring sales staff into target selling might pose a mis-selling risk to clients!
For goodness sake – it was pressurised target selling which made me leave the banking industry in 1990 and surprise, surprise, I’m now an IFA.
John Morgan
05 Sep 2012 | 10:41
Aldermore launches NewBuy 95% LTV deals
Really good to see new lenders looking to lend on NewBuy. Aldermore have been looking at the scheme for some months and look like they have priced their product very competitively.
They should give us great flexibility with their approach to underwriting. Hopefully we will see more lenders looking to help with government initiatives and stimulate house building in the UK.
Andy Frankish
03 Sep 2012 | 15:53
A surveyor crisis around the corner?
Richard makes a good point, one that has been made repeatedly over the last couple of years. But I fear it is falling on deaf ears. RICS have provided far too little support for far too long and the AssocRICs measure will only really scratch the surface.
Fundamentally, it is proving all too difficult for surveyors to make a living and until lenders see the folly of their ways I can’t see anything changing. In a world now dominated by risk, why do lenders choose to go to the lowest cost provider or continue to insist on speed of turnaround rather than quality of report as the leading KPI?
However, Richard’s point is premised on the belief that surveyors are the only answer. They are only part of the answer… AVMs – in the words of the Shamen “much maligned and mis-understood” can fill the void. The majority of cases don’t go bad. And in the majority of that small number of cases that go bad, the valuation isn’t the cause.
So lenders could choose a risk-based approach to valuations in more cases than they currently do, adopting AVMs for the run of the mill business and appointing grey-haired surveyors to assess the more complex cases. You would need fewer surveyors, yes.
But the surveyors left would be more highly valued (excuse the pun) and paid a fair rate for the quality assessment they provide. The surveying industry and lenders need to work more closely for a better quality future.
A roll that RICS has so far shied away from and I believe the larger surveying companies need to take a firmer grip of. In the meantime, AVMs will continue to grow in quality, and grow in importance as the only viable solution to fill the void so eloquently described by Richard. But that may not necessarily be a bad thing…
Tim Hague
04 Sep 2012 | 17:50
Govt. announces £280m extension of FirstBuy scheme
Until such times as the lenders stop increasing their own perceived living expenses levels any such government actions are a waste of time, they hide behind the excuse that they are only doing what the government told them to do!
They say “yes” to the government to lend more then promptly go back and increase their affordability calculators. End result, they have more money coming in and, at best, the same levels as before going out, but, in reality, there is now less going out and rates are increasing!
Ian Britton
06 Sep 2012 | 11:33
Mortgage fees soar 70% over four years
The logical reason for the increase is sheer greed. Fee income will be in someone’s target for bonus. Surprised more lenders haven’t done Halifax’s clever wheeze of renaming the deeds release fee and lending it at 0%.
Des Platt
06 Sep 2012 | 13:25
Thank you for all your comments this week.
