This week’s top five stories:
Co-operative Bank in talks to sell off £6.6bn mortgage book – reports
Advisers for the Co-operative Bank are believed to be in talks with several funds in a bid to sell off over £6bn of mortgages acquired through its merger with Britannia Building Society.
Budget 2015: Osborne unveils Help to Buy ISA plans
In this week’s Budget, George Osborne announced the launch of a Help to Buy ISA for first-time buyers to help them tackle the challenges of low interest rates on savings and high deposits required by banks.
Sterling drops as BoE chief economist backs rate cut
On Friday, sterling slumped against the US dollar after the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane said the UK has an equal chance of seeing a rate cut as a rate hike, contrary to consensus expectations.
TSB extends broker mortgage range
TSB Intermediary expanded its range available through brokers by including remortgages for the first time.
OBR questions first-time buyer take-up of Help to Buy ISA
The Help to Buy ISA was assigned a ‘very high’ uncertainty rating by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which questioned take-up of the scheme among first-time buyers.
Here’s some more you may have missed:
Basel proposals could curb high-risk lending – CML
Proposals that would force banks to alter how much capital is held against assets could negatively impact first-time buyers and the specialist lending market, warned the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Lloyds agrees TSB sale to Spanish bank in £1.7bn deal
Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell its remaining shareholding in TSB to Spanish bank Sabadell, in a deal which will value the bank at £1.7bn.
Openwork CEO McIntyre departs for Old Mutual Wealth
Openwork announced the departure of Mary-Anne McIntyre as the network’s CEO.
Industry calls for full regulation of letting agents – poll
Some 84% of brokers believe letting agents should be fully regulated, according to a poll carried out by Mortgage Solutions.
House prices exceed earnings in a fifth of the UK
First-time buyers are being pushed out of the housing market as average UK house prices exceed the rate of pay in a number of regions, Halifax research finds.
