Mortgage fraud on the rise
The year is shaping up to be a challenging one for many lenders. So far, we have seen a widening of criteria, increases in risk layering and loosening of underwriting controls as firms attempt to achieve lending volume objectives. At the same time, competition has forced prices down, squeezing already tight margins. Sometimes we wonder […]
Stress testing
The core thrust of the Bank of England annual cyclical stress test focuses on the 7 major UK banks and building societies who present a systemic risk to the stability of the UK financial system. All other sector firms must also design their own specific stress testing system. To enable this analysis, the PRA publishes […]
Bank of England messaging
It is not surprising that many businesses, and the media, hang on every word that comes out of the Bank of England. It seems that the appetite for news in the mortgage trade press is unsatisfiable and that the daily news machine often contains conflicting analysis of the same outputs. As an example, two recent […]
Peer to peer – ready for a shake up
The peer to peer [P2P] lending market has never been without controversy; despite being regulated by the FCA from April 2014 when it took over the regulation of consumer credit from the OFT. As early as 2016, the FCA launched a review of its regulation of the crowdfunding sector and that review resulted in additional […]
ABS Conference 2019 – thanks from our team
“We have been attending the ABS conference for many years and thanks to everyone that visited our stand in Barcelona last week. Our senior team was present to meet many of our existing clients and explain to potential clients how we can add value and expertise to the process of trading asset backed portfolios.” Richard […]
Meet the team at the 23rd Annual Global ABS in Barcelona
We are pleased to announce that once again we will be exhibiting at the 23rd Annual Global ABS conference, taking place 11-13 June 2019, in Barcelona, Spain. Over 3,500 leaders in the global ABS market will attend this event, which is recognised as the largest annual European structured finance gathering. We have built a reputation […]
Tackling Europe’s non-performing loans (NPLs)
Even though more than a decade has passed since the global financial crisis, many banks, particularly in the EU, have struggled with high levels of NPLs. These loans have a negative effect on bank profitability and large numbers of bad loans reduce bank equity, with the result that it becomes more difficult to originate new […]
Equity Release portfolios – long term risks
The recent PRA consultation paper as part of Solvency II throws the spotlight on how holders of mortgage assets monitor and value long term risk in equity release mortgages [‘ERM’]. The previous consultation set out a test for firms to measure the risks in the form of an Effective Value Test [‘EVT’] and this reflects […]
Interest only – has inertia set in?
We have commentated on this topic several times before and undoubtedly some progress has been made by lenders, but recently mortgage portfolio trades have contained large proportions of interest only loans and there has also been a renewed focus by the FCA. Despite some commentators suggesting that this issue is a low risk one, the […]
10 Years On – Loan Portfolio Reviews
With several lenders using the acquisition of high-quality loan portfolios to support their growth aspirations, we are proud to have been involved with successful bidders for loan books for over 10 years. With some books being acquired at a slight discount to book value, the detailed file reviews which provide information and data to assist […]
