We provide market updates on important issues to key figures in the industry on different topics, but all related to our activities throughout Europe. We cover hot news stories and give our honest opinion on developments, threats and opportunities.
Our articles 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 commenting on what type of coffee we are drinking whilst waiting for a train! You can catch up on our previous commentaries by looking at the archive below.
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As financial markets move through economic cycles the focus of regulators often shifts to ensure current and potential risks are adequately assessed and mitigated against. In the current climate economic cycles are shortening and risks are becoming ‘game changers’ quicker. Anyone close to the PRA will be aware that it has identified three key risks […]
There has been historic misconduct within the Australian banking, mortgage and financial service industries – hence a Royal Commission was formed to consider the issues, causes and make recommendations for regulatory change. The final report has now been issued and the recommendations are potentially far-reaching, especially if regulators around the world consider some of the […]
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 […]
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 […]
It is often the case in emerging markets where new products are being developed, that regulation follows behind market innovations. For example, driverless cars exist and work, but no one has yet articulated the ‘rules of the road’ that will apply when such vehicles compete for space on our crowded transport system. Another extreme example […]
We have just hit the first anniversary of the FCA Consultation paper announcing the intention to create a new term, Retirement Interest Only Mortgages [RIOs], and to exclude them from the definition of ‘lifetime’ loans. The paper suggested that RIOs had significantly different risks compared to lifetime mortgages as the former did not feature the […]
The FCA has recently published the findings of its review of complaint handling by non-deposit taking mortgage lenders and mortgage third party administrators. The results are far reaching and significantly relate to all regulated firms not just to the sectors initially investigated. Overall, the results were positive, but there are areas where firms need to […]
It is just over 2 years since the FCA Senior Manager & Certification Regime [SM&CR] was implemented for banks and deposit takers. Since then, the regulator has continued to embed cultural changes and strengthen market accountability with the objective of minimising consumer harm. There were, therefore, no surprises that the recently issued policy statement extending […]
