Sandler says 5% fall in house prices would strain Rock plan

Northern Rock executive chairman Ron Sandler has admitted a serious fall in house prices could significantly dent the bank’s plan to pay back its £27bn Bank of England loan by 2010.
Speaking at a Treasury Select Committee hearing today, Sandler said the bank had thoroughly stress-tested its plan but if the state of the housing market [...]

Trigold moves into new head office

Trigold, the leading mortgage sourcing and application system, has moved into a new, larger head office to support growth plans over the coming year.
The move is to facilitate expansion plans as Trigold continues to offer additional products and services for mortgage intermediaries such as an enhanced insurance sales platform and integrations to other products such [...]

AMI slams FSA for failing to see value of mortgage advice

The FSA’s current response to the issue of dual-pricing in the mortgage market fails to recognise the role and value of advice for consumers, according to the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI). AMI has also criticised the FSA for not considering the wider ramifications of suggesting mortgage intermediaries should send their clients directly to lenders.
Following [...]

Ex Money Partners sales boss to launch sub-prime broker

Jim Nash, former national sales manager at Money Partners, is launching a sub-prime brokerage, specialising in the secured loan, mortgage, bridging and commercial markets.
Nash, who was made redundant by Money Partners a couple of weeks ago, wants to get the new firm, James Dee Associates, up and running by the end of July.
Nash, who is [...]

Sants responds to dual-pricing open letter

Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, has responded to mortgage adviser Stuart Duncan’s open letter, in which he expressed his concerns about dual-pricing in the mortgage market.
Dear Mr Duncan,
Thank you for you e-mails of 11 May and 14 May. I take on board the points you make and would like to offer the following [...]

Intermediaries will stuggle when normal service is resumed

National mortgage broker Homebank believes that intermediaries and packagers will struggle to be profitable in the aftermath of the credit crisis.
According to Rupert Atkinson, director of Northampton-based Homebank, the financial services landscape is going to be changed completely after the financial markets return to normal.
“Already we are seeing well established firms both B2B and B2C [...]

first direct restarts new mortgage business

HSBC subsidiary first direct has resumed selling mortgages to non-customers.
The online and telephone bank temporarily stopped offering mortgages to new customers on the 1st of April after receiving five times its normal number of applications. It has now cleared the backlog of mortgage application approvals from 1 April and earlier.
Since April’s move, first direct has continued [...]

Not Picture perfect for Allport

Newport-based Picture Financial chief executive Neville Allport, and other senior management, have left according to local press reports.
Last week the secured lender revealed that 85 of its staff had been made redundant, leaving around 70. The operation is believed to being run by Picture’s chief finance officer Warren Justice.
Allport, who has an OBE, founded secured [...]