HBSC will no longer ask self-employed applicants to provide bank statements from the first three months of 2020 in a revision of its criteria.
The bank previously requested this information to compare how businesses were performing before the pandemic to their trading levels now by asking for the latest 60 days of statements.
HSBC will now ask for just the latest three months’ bank statements and two years of accounts.
The bank will still deduct grants and loan repayments from an applicant’s net profit to determine affordability.
A HSBC spokesperson: “In order to support self-employed mortgage applicants we have updated our policy, making it easier and quicker for them to get a mortgage with us, whilst ensuring we have the information needed to make an appropriate affordability assessment.”
HSBC is the latest lender to relax its rules for self-employed borrowers and is among Santander and Bluestone.
Shekina is the deputy editor at Mortgage Solutions and commercial editor at Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions. She has nearly eight years of experience in the B2B publishing market, having previously covered the hospitality, retail, pet, accounting and jewellery sectors.
Shekina has worked for Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions for almost five years. Here, she covers the market’s breaking news stories, engages with professionals in the sector, and oversees any commercially agreed content in partnership with mortgage-related companies.
This includes presenting webinars and hosting roundtable discussions on developing themes in the mortgage sector.
She is an NCTJ-trained journalist and was nominated for the Headline Money Awards Mortgage Journalist of the Year in 2021.
In her spare time, Shekina likes to read, travel, listen to music and socialise with friends.
She currently reports on current events in the mortgage market and liaises with financial clients to produce sponsored content.
Follow her on Twitter at @ShekinaMS
