Our news stories can be in the form of e-shots, ‘white papers’ or social media commentary, but we will not comment on trivial matters – you will not see us mentioning on what type of coffee we are drinking whilst waiting for a train! You can catch up on our previous commentaries below.
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Consumer duty – “it’s not going away”
We know this is on everyone’s agenda and by now firms in sixteen separate financial services sectors will have received tailored FCA guidance. As the July deadline looms ever closer…
FCA/Amigo Loans penalty is a warning to all
The FCA decision to impose a financial penalty of £72.9m, “were it not for Amigo’s financial position” and “the risk to the planned customer redress scheme” should be a stark…
FCA Consumer Duty focus ramps up
The FCA has issued eight of the sixteen sector-by-sector guidance letters for Consumer Duty. The other eight sectors will receive theirs shortly. We have active clients in fifteen of the…
PRA seeks proactivity in managing credit risk
The PRA is telling firms to prepare for a prolonged period of stress. While the recent FCA focus has been the increasing risk of mortgage defaults and the resultant risk…
Supporting existing customers
In its parting shot of 2022, the FCA issued a consultation in response to the rising cost of living, outlining draft guidance for firms to support customers in financial difficulty.…
ESG comes of age
For too long there has been a sceptical mistrust in the integrity of some ESG labelled securities. It is not surprising that the term ‘Greenwashing’ has become a word in…
Risky mortgage portfolios
We have heard commentators starting to describe some mortgage portfolios as ‘toxic’. While that may sound a bit harsh, we can understand how they may have reached that conclusion. There…
Lenders unwind affordability stress tests
Back in the summer, when the BoE confirmed that it would withdraw its affordability test from August 2022, we wrote a blog questioning the timing. To recap, the requirement was…
Service Level Agreement ‘SLA’ oversight
Regulators, including the BoE, PRA and FCA, are renewing their attention on how firms manage and control the third parties that they work with. Most regulated firms are used to…
Affordability and ‘breathing space’ arrangements
In May we discussed the UK Finance arrears data, but the situation is expected to get worse as mortgage rates continue to rocket. Coupled with the cost-of-living crisis households are…
Tap into our expertise
We are certainly living in interesting times and are facing multiple, changing challenges, daily. The Financial Services world is headline news and whilst to many these challenges seem new, uncharted…
Underwriting service levels
We have seen, over the last few weeks, a deterioration in residential and commercial underwriting service levels. Brokers complain that the time from submitting an application to receiving a ‘useable’…
ESG – the need for data
It is already a month since I spoke at the Global ABS, in Barcelona, on the need for transparency of ESG factors within RMBS. Not surprisingly, we still await agreed…
Equity release concerns return
The Times recently ran an article that highlighted issues with equity release/lifetime mortgages. These mortgages have been plagued by negative connotations and even litigation ever since the first home income…
Affordability stress tests – should funders be concerned?
While the Financial Policy Committee decision to drop lender affordability stress tests was expected, it is difficult to find articles that support the timing of the decision. When the restrictions…
UK Finance arrears update – do you really know what you are holding/buying?
UK Finance has just issued its arrears data for Q1 of 2022. The press release highlights some of the positive aspects of the data, for example, the headline “The total…
