News Archive

The Queen’s bank, Coutts, has been fined £8.75m for anti-money laundering control failings...

Abbey for Intermediaries, part of Santander, is tightening up on interest-only repayment vehicles as from this morning, while Skipton is cutting its LTV on interest-only mortgages from 75% to 60%...

Large mortgage specialist Enness Private Clients has announced a new introducer referral agreement with upmarket London estate agent Benham & Reeves...

The Co-operative Group’s proposed acquisition of than 600 branches from Lloyds could be under threat by a fresh bid from a rival...

A consortium of estate agents is forming in the wake of last week’s twin Stamp Duty bombshells...

Property prices rose by a tiny 01% across England and Wales to stand at £161,588, according to the Land Registry...

Client Data Systems has launched a new twitter account (@TheCoreUpdates) that tells brokers when product changes are live on TheCore sourcing system...

A husband and wife team of mortgage introducers has bagged first place in Goldsmith Williams’ cash draw...

The FSA has confirmed a 15.6% rise in its funding requirement, taking its budget to £578.4m for 2012/13, but said that the new City regulators would try to keep a lid on costs...

Mortgage Brain has not hung about in buying Mortgage Stream within days of the OFT saying that the deal could go ahead...

A mortgage broker has been banned after his firm put through mortgage applications which were at odds with the information on customers’ files...

The FSA has won a major victory in the battle against land banks, winning a £32m High Court judgment against three firms – but victims are highly unlikely to get their money back...

NatWest has this morning put a temporary stop to lending on an interest-only basis. The decision affects NatWest Intermediaries Solutions only, and not customers who go direct...

The hike in Stamp Duty to 7% for properties over £2m has provoked mixed reactions. Some heaved a sigh of relief, saying it was better than a Mansion Tax, others said it could affect the entire property market, and some said its impact would be negligible...

The London property market plunged into meltdown yesterday. The effects were seen within moments of the Chancellor’s bombshell announcement that purchasers using companies as the buying vehicles of £2m-plus properties would be stung by 15% Stamp Duty as from midnight...

Aldermore is to roll out the UK’s first online commercial mortgage broker portal over the course of the next few weeks...

Yet another lender has cut back on its interest-only mortgages. From today, Coventry Building Society has chopped its maximum LTV for interest-only lending from 75% to 50%...

Nationwide has become the latest lender to clamp down on interest-only loans. It has reduced the maximum LTV from 75% to 50%, as from today...

Gross mortgage lending held steady in February and was an estimated £10.7bn, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders...

Halifax announced this morning a new product for first-time buyers, designed to coincide with the ending of the Stamp Duty holiday on Saturday...