First Complete adds serious illness specialist to panel

First Complete, part of the LSL group, has added PruProtect to its protection panel.

This brings the total number of life companies on the panel to six, joining Ageas, Aviva, Bright Grey, Friends Life and Legal & General.

PruProtect has a growing portfolio of protection products including a flagship serious illness plan, which covers 161 conditions compared to the market average of 35 critical illness conditions.

Jon Round, chief executive of First Complete, said: “We look to continually improve our panels and what they offer to our members.

“Protection is at the heart of the proposition provided by First Complete, so adding PruProtect to our protection panel helps us to increase both quality and choice for our members and for their clients.”

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Yorkshire BS gets set for expansion

A dozen new branches are to be opened by Yorkshire Building Society over the next two years, and will also grow its agency network.

Chris Pilling, chief executive, said: “Our branch and agency network is at the heart of Yorkshire Building Society and I’m delighted that we are able to announce this expansion when other financial institutions have been closing theirs.

“We are committed to retaining a strong presence on our high streets, providing our customers with access to a wide range of good-value financial service products backed up with the exceptional personal service they value.

“Our recent merger activity highlighted the value we place on our branch network, with all the branches we acquired remaining open, even in the small number of locations where there has been an overlap with another Yorkshire branch.

“These mergers have seen the Society grow its branch network by 65% from 135 to 224 in three years.”

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/yorkshire-bs-gets-set-for-expansion

RBS's 'last bank in town' ads banned from TV

Two ‘last bank in town’ TV adverts for NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland have been banned by the advertising watchdog.

The ads attracted two complaints which said there was at least one place, Farsley in Yorkshire, where NatWest had closed its branch despite being the last bank in town.

RBS agreed this was so, as usage of the Farsley branch had fallen, but said that the ad stated that their commitment was to continue providing ‘banking services’ wherever they were the last bank in town. The ad showed a mobile service.

The bank did not go as far as to say that they would commit to keeping all branches open. It said Farsley residents had access to another branch in Pudsey just 1.5 miles away.

But the ASA upheld the complaints, saying the ad would be interpreted by viewers to mean that NatWest would not close a branch where it was the last one in town. It felt that the ad implied that a branch was a bricks and mortar building, not a mobile service.

In a busy week for the ASA, it also upheld a complaint from someone who had received a text message from a claims management firm.

The message said: “Records passed to us show you are entitled to circa £3,250 in compensation from the mis-selling of PPI on your credit card & loan. Reply STOP or PPI for info.”

The complainant had never taken out PPI, and challenged as to how the firm, DARH Ltd, could substantiate its claim as to having had records passed to it.

DARH did not respond to the ASA, which upheld the complaint. The ASA also noted that the text message did not contain information about the identity of the marketer and that it was in breach.

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New powers for Bank of England to set LTVs

Chancellor George Osborne is set to hand new powers to the Bank of England to regulate the mortgage market by allowing it to set loan-to-value ratio limits.

The new powers would be aimed at controlling busts and booms, by banning unsustainable mortgages and preventing another housing bubble, or stimulating more lending.

The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) at the Bank will be able to set LTV limits – for example, setting them at 75% if it feared a credit bubble, or at 95% if it wanted to encourage more lending.

Osborne told MPs in a debate on the Finance Bill that the new committee, which has already been set up but does not come into legal force until next January, is to be led by the Governor of the Bank of England.

He said: “Its job is not just to try to moderate a credit boom but to try to alleviate a credit bust.”

The committee’s job will be to prevent lenders repeating the scenario of the pre-2008 credit crunch. Then it was commonplace to offer mortgages with 125% LTVs in the belief that property prices would continue rising, along with people’s ability to repay their loans.

Osborne said that the previous light-touch regulation had been an ‘unmitigated disaster’ for the economy. He said the FCP would be ‘entrusted with the stability for the whole financial system’.

Osborne said: “In many senses, this is the bread and butter of people’s daily lives, and it is very important that we understand that, as we create these instruments of policy that don’t currently exist.”

He said of the Bank’s new powers that it did not have to use them, adding: “I should say that these are just possibilities – they are potential tools that the committee might want to use.”

News source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

Sesame networks capture more share of intermediary business

Sesame Bankhall Group achieved a 13.8% share of the mortgage market last year with its PMS and Sesame networks.

The combined group delivered over £26.1bn of mortgage applications to lenders, a £1.9bn increase on the previous year (£24.2bn). Its market share crept up from 13.3% in 2010.

John Cupis, managing director of PMS, said: “It was another challenging year, but with the strong support of our adviser and lender partners, PMS and Sesame once again outperformed the market.

“Over the past year we have made significant investments in valuable new services to enable our members to broaden their offering to clients. This includes protection, mortgage valuations and legal services that are helping intermediaries to develop new income streams.

“We have also bolstered our team of business managers to deliver more face to face support.

“In the face of a tough mortgage market, adviser productivity increased by an average of 20% last year, which demonstrates that our members are rising to the challenge and seizing new opportunities.

“As the Mortgage Market Review draws closer, our strong market position and regulatory expertise means we are ideally placed to help give intermediaries the services and expert guidance they will need to trade efficiently and responsibly in the future.”

PMS is the group’s mortgage club for directly regulated intermediaries. Sesame is its network for appointed representative advisers.

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One-third more FTBs will have to pay Stamp Duty this year

One-third more first-time buyers will have to pay Stamp Duty this year than last, it has emerged, after the number of first-time buyers fell to its lowest level last year since 1974.

According to the Halifax, around 187,000 people were first-time buyers in 2011, a 7% drop on 2010 and fewer than half of the peak of 402,800 in 2006.

Last year’s figure the lowest the Halifax has recorded since it started tracking the data for the UK.

Despite affordability – measured by average earnings and average house prices in all the different local authority areas – being at its best level since 2003, most of the South of the country is shut to first-time buyers: in 2011, the Halifax says that only 5% of the South was affordable, compared with 75% of the North. London had no affordable areas at all for first-time buyers.

Hefty deposit requirements meant that first-time buyers last year had to find £27,032 on average to put down on a purchase. In 2007, when first-time buyers had to find a 10% deposit as opposed to 20%, the average deposit was £17,482.

Nationally, the average price paid for a first-time buyer property was £135,160, down 3% on 2010.

“Housing affordability for those looking to get on to the property ladder for the first time has improved significantly over recent years, largely as a consequence of the decline in house prices since 2007,” said Martin Ellis, the lender’s housing economist.

“Nevertheless, conditions for potential first-time buyers remain tough. Difficulties raising the necessary deposit and concerns over the economic climate are preventing many from entering the market.”

Significantly, first-time buyers may struggle even more this year than in 2011. The Halifax estimates that 95% of first-time buyers were exempt from paying Stamp Duty in 2011.

Nearly four in ten did not pay any Stamp Duty as a consequence of the temporary increase in the starting threshold for first-time buyers from £125,000 to £250,000.

On this basis, 38% more first-time buyers – and 43% in total – will be required to pay Stamp Duty once this concession ends in March.

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk

Insurance giant JLT to run mortgage indemnity scheme

Insurance group Jardine Lloyd Thompson has been appointed to manage and develop the new mortgage indemnity scheme for first-time buyers of new homes.

The group expects its work to support 100,000 new mortgages – which will also be available to some other buyers – at 95% LTV. The scheme is a joint one, between the new homes industry and the Government, and will underwrite the mortgages.

JLT has been appointed by the Home Builders Federation, and will handle the scheme through a number of its operating companies: Lloyd & Partners, JLT Specialty and JLT Insurance Management (Guernsey).

Steven Rance, Partner, JLT, said: “This risk management solution, created in response to the reduced availability of mortgage funding for home buyers with small deposits, will reduce lender risk at higher LTV ratios and so allow lenders to offer 95% LTV mortgages for new-home buyers at more competitive rates.

“The UK’s major lenders and house builders are all supporting the scheme which is being backed by the Government and is expected to launch in March. This is an extremely timely and exciting development for lenders, builders and the UK housing sector.”

Before the launch, JLT will be developing the legal framework, scheme structure, bank accounts and systems, with this initial scheme expected to run for three years.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said: “The lack of high loan-to-value mortgages has been a major constraint on new-home sales for the last four years. The indemnity scheme should provide a significant boost to new-home sales over the next three years.

“Everyone involved in the scheme is now working very hard to ensure customers and home builders gain maximum benefit.

“HBF is therefore pleased to have appointed JLT whose experience and expertise will be crucial to the scheme’s success.”

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/