Abbey has toppled Halifax as the UK’s biggest mortgage lender by taking more than a quarter of all business in the first six months of the year. Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said that while other lenders were withdrawing from the market, it was increasing mortgage lending to low-risk customers. However, he warned Abbey is unlikely to continue at such a rate for the rest of the year as other lenders return to the market. It came as Abbey, which is owned by Spanish giant Santander, reported a 20% rise in first-half profits to £485m. Santander, which has agreed to buy struggling Abbey rival Alliance & Leicester, said group profits jumped 22% to €4.73bn (£3.73bn).
Posts Tagged ‘Alliance & Leicester’
Abbey is new top UK mortgage lender
Saturday, August 9th, 2008Lenders raise rates despite cut by the Bank
Saturday, April 12th, 2008The Bank of England cut its base rate by o.25% to 5% on Thursday to stop the economy’s slide towards recession. However, relief for home owners was instantly undermined by a new wave of mortgage rate increases from Britain’s biggest lenders. Many lenders are yet to pass on the recent base rate reductions - instead they are busy increasing rates, demanding larger deposits, tightening lending criteria and, in some cases, withdrawing deals from the market altogether. Most of the big lenders, including Halifax, Nationwide, the Woolwich, Cheltenham & Gloucester and First Direct also said within minutes of the Bank’s announcement that they will be cutting their standard variable mortgage rates by the full 0.25%. Both Nationwide and Alliance & Leicester are believed to have been overwhelmed by applications from borrowers coming off cheap fixed deals and want to choke off the demand with yet another big increase of upto 0.35% in less than two weeks. The increases followed similar moves from Woolwich, Halifax and Abbey.
Northern Rock axes 125% mortgage
Friday, February 22nd, 2008Northern Rock has pulled its 125% mortgage after heavy public criticism for the super-size homeloan. The troubled bank will no longer offer the Together mortgage to new customers as it seeks to move towards low-risk lending and shrink its mortgage book. Alliance & Leicester, Abbey, Coventry Building Society and Godiva all pulled their 125% homeloans earlier this week. The only lender still offering 125% mortgages is Birmingham Midshires and experts have suggested it will soon take the product off the market. Fears have been raised that those coming to the end of 100%-plus mortgages may be in for a payment shock and unable to find credit elsewhere. Mortgage lenders have been reassessing their ranges in response to tighter market conditions and have become more reluctant to lend to those with chequered credit histories or high loan-to-value ratios.
