Interest-Only – still a challenge?
The FCA announced in its 2017/18 business plan that it will investigate lenders with interest-only mortgage books. The aim is to make sure customers are being treated fairly. The business plan says: “Around 1.8 million UK home owners currently have outstanding interest-only mortgages (excluding buy-to-let) and many do not have an appropriate strategy to repay […]
Extension of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime
In October 2015, HM Treasury announced its intention to extend the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) beyond Banks and Building societies to all firms within the financial services industry. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has now published proposals to extend the regime to almost all regulated firms. It has been widely publicised that the […]
Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM & CR) – individual accountability
The extension of the SM&CR is on the horizon and having discussed the effect on firms in our previous note, we now explore the effect on individuals. The new regime will replace the Approved Persons Regime currently in place and it is essential that individuals affected by the changes understand what they are going to […]
Lending opportunities in Iberia
We have seen more activity in Iberia over the last 3 months than has been evident for some time. We can specifically see several niche opportunities within the lending origination space, either as a lender or by providing warehouse funding to a third-party originator. Some of these potential opportunities exist within the following sectors: In […]
Cup half full or half empty?
2017 has been another year where the financial services arena has continued to be subjected to more than its fair share of change and regulatory scrutiny. In the mortgage market, gross lending has held up against 2016 figures despite some predictions of doom and gloom in the Buy to Let sector. Undoubtedly, there are some […]
Are you learning from your complaints?
The Financial Conduct Authority has recently published data on the number of complaints reported by firms for the first half of 2017. A staggering total of 3.32 million complaints were received in the first half of 2017, up 10% from the second half of 2016. General administration and customer service complaints have risen from 27% […]
Assessing affordability – The challenge for all lenders
The FCA has turned its attention to consumer credit lenders and peer to peer platforms with the spotlight on poor practice and culture when assessing affordability. It is an area which has been on its agenda for some time and the recent consultation paper will go a long way towards addressing the concerns. The FCA […]
Lending Risks Across Europe
Rockstead is recognised as a leading provider of lending support services in the UK and Ireland, but we have also been active across Europe, using local expertise to mitigate various lending risks. Processes and procedures that are standard practise in regulated lenders in the UK, can differ across European jurisdictions, dependent on local laws or […]
Reputational Risk
Reputational risk is a hidden danger that can pose a threat to a company resulting in lost revenue or increased costs. At its most destructive it can wipe out millions of pounds in market capitalisation and can result in significant changes to the management structure. Arguably a lot of problems can be mitigated by strong […]
Back to basics with loan data
As the only truly independent due diligence provider in Ireland, we have been involved in most of the loan sales activity over the last four years. Our involvement has included data, compliance and process reviews as well as full due diligence exercises, but we remain to be convinced that companies selling loan portfolios are managing […]
