The Treasury Committee wrote to four high street banks on a range a of topics, including savings, branch closures and remuneration.
Regarding remortgages, the committee asked what proportion of customers remortgaged with them and whether that had changed in recent years.
The lenders said that between half and three quarters of borrowers remortgaged with them but this was dependent on several factors.
The committee has since got in touch with the regulator to ask whether the regulator would expect a greater proportion of consumers to switch to a different provider in a competitive market and whether it had done any work on the competitiveness of the sector.
Barclays
Barclays’ CEO Matt Hammerstein said that over the last four years the proportion of rate switchers ranged from 53 per cent to 70 per cent.
He noted that customer behaviour depended on the macroeconomic environment, cost of living pressures, stamp duty incentives, competitiveness of Barclays’ mortgage rates and ease of customers switching to new rate directly with lenders.
Hammerstein said that Barclays customers could use the app to switch the rate and had expanded its rate switch window from three to six months.
He added that if mortgage rates were lower than the initial chosen rate customers could cancel and choose the lower rate.
“It is important to note that, when a customer is presented with a new fixed rate option for their mortgage at the end of term, that rate is the same rate as they could obtain via a broker at that particular time. We do not vary pricing for customers between channels,” Hammerstein added.
HSBC
HSBC UK’s CEO Ian Stuart said that around three quarters of customers remortgage with HSBC, but there was variation between customers using a broker and those who dealt with the firm directly.
He added that the proportion had been falling over recent years as more brokers were using brokers to arrange their mortgage.
The latest report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) found that the majority of mortgage business went through intermediaries, rising from 80 per cent in 2021 to 84 per cent in 2022.
It added that the intermediary share of the market is expected to grow to 90 per cent by 2024.
Lloyds Banking Group and Natwest
Charlie Nunn, Lloyds Banking Group’s CEO said that just under two thirds of customers remortgage with the firm once they came to the end of their deals and this had been “broadly stable” since 2021.
Natwest’s CEO Alison Rose said that around three quarters of its customers remortgage with them, and over time this had remained “broadly stable at this level”.
She said that it offered all customers a new rate at the end of their current deal. This covered all loan to value (LTV) tiers, fee or fee-free products and those in arrears.
Rose added that the firm did not retest affordability.
She noted that customers with less than two years left on their mortgage or a balance of less than £10,000 were the only customers not offered a new rate.
