Steve Harness is commercial director at The Loans Engine When the history of financial services regulation is written, the lucky individual who gets the job might wish to look at how the major regulatory reviews and directives of our time have actually translated from theory into practice. The reason is that so often with new […]
There’s been so much press comment this week on the potential damage inflicted on the economy should the British public decide on Brexit at the EU referendum in June. My honest opinion is that nobody really knows what will happen if we vote to leave – after all, we are in unchartered territory – but […]
Tony Ward is chief executive of Clayton Euro Risk I was interested to see in the press this week comments by Hyan-Song Shin, head of research at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), suggesting that central banks would have more success in stimulating growth by making lenders increase capital buffers than by cutting interest rates […]
John Waddicker is director at Positive Commercial Finance Some interesting site development research was published recently and, after talking to a number of brokers and lenders, it was clear that defining when a site was ‘completed’ was, well, unclear! Throw into the mix whether the scheme was being built on a brownfield or greenfield site […]
Lucy Hodge is director at Vantage Finance After much anticipation the Mortgage Credit Directive is finally here. Whilst lenders and brokers operating in the first and second charge market have had ample time to adapt their processes and procedures ahead of the changes, the new legislation also has implications for those advising on buy-to-let mortgages. […]
Steve Harness is commercial director at The Loans Engine Look at any Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD) flowchart for mortgage advisers – take the Paradigm Mortgage Services one available on its website (www.paradigmmortgages.com) as a good example – and when it comes to second charge mortgages you will be faced with this first question: Are you […]
When brokers think about bridging finance, more often than not property-related transactions tend to spring to mind, e.g. people using a bridge to buy at auction because they haven’t got the funding in place, or someone using it to buy their dream home because they haven’t sold their existing property yet. This is understandable, as […]
In some ways I was glad to read comments made by former City regulator Adair Turner about what he sees as the danger posed by peer-to-peer lending. I’ll explain why in a moment. But first, those comments: in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Turner counselled caution on the industry. “The losses […]
I have never known a time in the market where people have felt so much uncertainty. Nothing has actually occurred as yet, but consumer confidence is being affected and people are feeling jittery. It is not at all surprising of course, what with changes to buy-to-let, MCD and, most pervasive, the threat of Brexit. The […]
Unless you are new to lending, you will be incredibly well versed (we hope) in the upcoming regulatory changes that will see second charge mortgages come under the same FCA regulation as first charge mortgages. The implementation of the Mortgage Credit Directive in March will raise the awareness of seconds, which were traditionally overlooked, as […]