Sunday, October 26th, 2008
Yorkshire Building Society is to take over its smaller peer Barnsley Building Society after Barnsley revealed a possible £10 million writedown from its exposure to two Icelandic banks, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and Heritable.
The merger of Yorkshire, the UK’s third largest building society, and Barnsley is the latest of a wave of consolidation as smaller players turn to their larger peers for help against the backdrop of financial turbulence. Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, announced its plans to merge with The Derbyshire and The Cheshire Building Societies last month, while earlier this month Britannia Building Society said it is in exploratory talks with the Co-Operative Bank.
Tags: Barnsley BS, building societies, merger, Nationwide BS, Yorkshire BS
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Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
Several small building societies have been restricting or halting lending as a result of the financial turmoil. With lenders’ funds drying up, higher deposits are being demanded from first-time buyers. The Co-operative Bank now demands a higher deposit by cutting its maximum loan-to-value ratio from 95% to 90%. Bigger lenders, such as the Halifax and the Woolwich, have slightly increased the interest rates on certain tracker or fixed-rate deals, while making other deals available only to those able to put down a 40% deposit. The Cheltenham & Gloucester, part of Lloyds TSB, has also raised the interest rate charged on some deals. More than a million fixed-rate deals, typically lasting for two years, are due to expire in 2008, which will add to demand. As a result, the smaller building societies are withdrawing deals instead of being swamped by demand. Those wishing to move house are being told to act fast on mortgage deals as lenders are changing their deals frequently, sometimes several times a week.
Tags: building societies, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Co-operative, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, First-time buyers, fixed-rate deals, Halifax, higher deposits, Lloyds TSB, mortgage criteria, Nationwide, TSB
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, First-time buyers, Halifax, Mortgages, Nationwide, Personal Finance, Property Market | No Comments »
