The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have ‘cracked down’ on the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), fining five car dealers £175,000 each. The car dealers were fined because of their failure to monitor and regulate the advice staff gave to customers, creating an ‘unacceptable risk’ that the PPI policies could be mis-sold. There have been [...]
Read moreIt is estimated that over 40% of lenders of new home loans did not obtain proof of earnings from their clients. Many clients were offered self certification and fast-track mortgages, despite not being considered a low risk – resulting in many being pushed to their financial limit with high monthly repayments on mortgages they simply [...]
Read moreThe Financial Services Authority (FSA) have put interest only mortgages under great scrutiny. It was suggested in the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) that affordability of interest only mortgages needs to be based on a capital repayment basis. More detail will be provided in the next consultation paper on responsible lending issued by the FSA. Some [...]
Read moreThis is a general overview of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). PPI policies were traditionally sold with other financial products, such as: personal loans, car finance and credit cards. Such policies are meant to cover the cost of your finance agreement in the unfortunate event that you lose your income and ability to service your debt [...]
Read moreThe Financial Services Authority (FSA) have reported that mortgage brokers used the ‘self certification’ method to enable clients to obtain higher mortgages than the normal income multiples would have permitted. In such instances, borrows were left with high monthly payments – which many struggle to meet. Mortgage brokers are meant to work within set guidelines, [...]
Read moreDuring the first 6 months of 2010, mortgage fraud accounted for 20% of all reported incidents. During times of financial difficulty you often see increases in fraud, this certainly seems to be the case in the UK. The half-year figures show fraud losses of £1.06 billion! This is a 2% increase on the same figure [...]
Read moreIt is estimated that first time buyers now require on average £37,000 prior to being able to purchase a house. House prices in the UK have seen a slight increase over the last year. However, due to the recent ‘credit crunch’ banks still require substantial deposits to secure the most competitive deals – generally the [...]
Read moreConstruction work has just commenced in Rotherham, they are having their first new council houses in 30 years. A total of 127 properties will be developed across the borough, the project is to commence with 36 properties in the Wood Street area. The new properties will include two-bed apartments, two, three and four bedroom houses. [...]
Read moreAccording to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), there has been an increase in the number of mortgages taken out in June. The total amount lent in June was £13.1 billion, which is a 15% increase on April – making it the highest monthly figure of 2010 thus far. It is worth noting that this [...]
Read moreMr David Head of FT Compliance Services Limited (FTCSL) based in Essex has been fined £10,500 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to adequately supervise insurance brokers linked to firms that have already been disciplined for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) by the FSA. They were also linked to sales which related to single [...]
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