This week’s top five stories:
1) Post Office reveals dual pricing strategy
The Post Office has revealed its direct-only product deals with rates starting from 1.63% with different fee options for both fixed and tracker products.
2) NatWest follows Lloyds with 4 x income cap
From Friday this week, NatWest Intermediary Solutions will follow Lloyds Bank by introducing a four times loan-to-income cap and maximum term of 30 years for all mortgage loans of more than £500,000.
3) Exclusive: 112 mortgage ‘professionals’ banned since 2006
The Financial Conduct Authority has banned more than 100 individuals from the mortgage industry for fraud in the last eight years, Mortgage Solutions can reveal.
4) What if… buy-to-let was regulated?
The buy-to-let market escaped regulation under the Mortgage Market Review but John Penn, head of mortgage proposition at Intelliflo, looks at what future regulation would mean for the sector.
5) Brokers, how many buy-to-let properties do you own?
Advisers regularly help landlords purchase properties with a buy-to-let mortgage, but how many are actually landlords themselves?.
Here are some stories you may have missed:
Fixing the valuation market once and for all – e.surv
We are now some months past the publication of the Oonagh MacDonald report into the sustainability of the UK residential valuation market, writes Richard Sexton.
UKAR returns £6.2bn to govt. as mortgage book shrinks
UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) has paid a further £6.2bn back to the government as it continues to run off its book of ‘toxic’ mortgage loans.
Accord Mortgages to rebrand
Yorkshire Building Society Group, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, has unveiled a new identity across all of its brands, including Accord the specialist intermediary lender.
Record £70m boiler room scam funds foreign property purchases
Two men were today convicted at Southwark Crown Court for their roles in what is believed to be the largest boiler room fraud ever pursued by a UK authority.
FCA probe uncovers logbook lenders using bullying tactics
The Financial Conduct Authority has found evidence of consumers being pressured and threatened by logbook lenders in an investigation into customer standards in the sector.
