Fraud risks in COVID loan schemes
When a senior officer from the National Crime Agency warns MPs about the substantial amount of fraud within the emergency loan schemes you know there is a problem. With £43bn of government backed loans being provided to 1.4 million firms in a very short space of time, we should not be surprised. At the same […]
FCA fines – simply a cost of doing business?
Every January the FCA announces the fines total for the previous year. The 2020 totals were not quite as high as the 2019 figure, but it has still issued fines of more than £500m in those two years – and that takes into account early settlement discounts. Included in the 2020 figure was a […]
FCA approach to supervision
The FCA approach to supervision is not new having been put in place 18 months ago, but it has now further tightened the regulatory ratchet for lenders and others with Dear CEO/Board of Directors letters to the different types of businesses it has identified. The FCA groups firms into portfolios (dare we suggest individual bubbles?) […]
Lifetime mortgage providers under the regulatory spotlight
Regulatory guidance lands on lenders’ desks in a variety of formats; guidance notes, consultation documents, policy updates, notifications of regulatory fines, Dear CEO letters and, on occasions (in respect of key concerns) letters addressed to the whole Board of Directors. The latter should currently be a focus of Lifetime Mortgage Providers’ Boards as they received […]
‘Buy now, pay later’ market is an FCA target
Followers of FCA regulatory trends know that what appears in a consultation today is likely to become the rule tomorrow – or at least remarkably close. This shows the detailed thought process and analysis the FCA carries out before going public. The same can be said for information contained in FCA annual reports or outlooks. […]
CBILS rule breaches under the spotlight
The timing may seem a bit strange, but the focus, as the scheme is about to come to an end, has been redirected to the issue of compliance. We suggest this should have been done earlier in the process. The early focus of CBILS funders and lenders was the quick processing of loans to assist […]
Risk mitigation in funding later life lending
Later life and ‘last time’ buyer lending is a product area where growth rates are outstripping traditional lending. Some commentators are genuinely surprised at the growth and innovation over the last 6 months But looking at the drivers, it is not surprising to see why. Many lenders are looking to develop product ranges away from […]
The RMBS market is alive and kicking
It also reinforces the continued support for specialist or non-bank mortgage lenders, particularly from global pension funds and debt investors when a number of them are understandably unhappy about the recent lack of central bank funding support. Investors in UK based RMBS have, over the last decade or so, become more confident in the underlying […]
Yabber website launch
Rockstead Group has expanded its support for businesses with the launch of a wholly owned subsidiary, Yabber Global. Yabber has been created to satisfy a specific need for audit and process improvement in customer contact centres. Rockstead has a significant number of years’ experience helping various financial services businesses review their call centre operations in […]
Lending growth in an uncertain economic environment
The mortgage market never seems to stand still! On the funding side in the last few weeks we have seen further applications for banking licences, increases in funding lines and significant securitisation issuance. On the credit side, we are seeing aggressive product pricing, credit risk expansion and the return of the off-site underwriter. These are […]
