News Review


Precise Mortgages gets full marks from FSA


Precise Mortgages last month became the first non-bank lender to become fully authorised by the City regulator sparking hopes that more could soon follow. Precise started lending in the buy-to-let sector in May this year and is headed up by Alan Cleary, managing director, Ian Lonergan, chief executive, John Nixon, chief operating officer and Seb Maloney, chief financial officer. The deal will give hope to


brokers that other would-be lenders still waiting on the sideline such as Portillion, fronted by former GMAC-RFC ace Stephen Knight, will also receive authorisation soon. Precise Mortgages is backed by Elliott Associates, the US-based equity house which provided Exact, the expert outsourcer - also fronted by the same team - with the finance to launch in 2008. Lonergan said: “We are committed to bringing new funding to the UK mortgage market and it’s fantastic to get the green light from the regulator.”


Cleary added: “We have plans to launch into new segments of the mortgage market early next year where we have identified good quality borrowers who have been starved of credit.” Stephen Knight, CEO of Portillion, said: “This is great news for the industry: the guys and their backers deserve the highest


praise.”And Ben Thompson, director of mortgages for Legal & General, added: “This is great news for mortgage brokers.”


MMR debate rages on as brokers lobby MPs to take action


Brokers, lenders and trade bodies have been lobbying for months to raise awareness about the unintended consequences of the Financial Services authority’s mortgage market review and october finally saw a breakthrough. mortgage


industry


representatives attended the Home Finance Forum in late october to voice concerns about the social impact of the mmr after the treasury agreed the meeting could be a forum for debate. it was the first indication


that the treasury is at least listening to industry concerns and came after the council of mortgage Lenders published research that showed had the mmr proposals been in effect from 2005 some 3.8 million “good” loans would not have been granted. Brokers are also worried


that the mmr will restrict consumer access to financial advice with the mortgage alliance releasing research in october suggesting three


out of four brokers expect the mmr will force some firms to shut up shop. as the debate raged on


mortgage introducer called on brokers to write to their mPs directly about their mmr concerns. Basildon-based mortgage


veteran danny Lovey wrote to local mPs John Baron and Stephen metcalfe. in his letter Lovey said:


“mark Hoban needs his rear kicked by back bench mPs until he sees the damage the FSa is doing in its death throes. the bottom line to all this is that if the government allows the FSa to continue its destruction of the mortgage market then it will be the government that will be damaged by it.” richard Farr,


former


director of the association of mortgage intermediaries, backed Lovey, saying: “i for one will be joining danny and the rest in writing to my mP. “now is the right time for


Richard Farr


anyone connected with the mortgage market to come together as one voice in enlightening our legislators of the detrimental effect the current proposals will have.” neil Bellamy from glasgow-


based nPB mortgages wrote on mortgageintroducer.com: “many thanks to richard Farr – e-mail has been sent to my mP. this took two minutes. if you feel strongly about these concerns please everyone do the same.” and chris gardner, director of essex-based broker obligo, added: “to richard Farr. great idea! i have just done it - very simple to use too. James dudderidge mP has just got a long letter from me. everybody else must do


this. Please!” Coalition becomes the new black as working together takes off


october was a month of coalition principles. aside from the most obvious – the government’s spending re- view (see pages 20-21) – the mortgage industry’s trade bodies published their long- awaited coalition document clarifying how brokers and lenders work together. the paper, produced


jointly by the association of mortgage intermediar- ies, the council of mortgage Lenders and the intermedi- ary mortgage Lenders asso-


4 mortgage introducer NOVEMBER 2010


ciation, formally documents the roles and responsibili- ties of lenders and brokers during the mortgage pro- cess.


although much of what


is in the guide is already in practice in the indus- try, the trade bodies said it should give intermediar- ies and lenders a shared understanding and clear de- scription of what should be done. With the FSa turning its attention to mmr pro-


posals on distribution and advice later this month the three trade bodies hope the guide will be clear evidence that common, high qual- ity working standards can be achieved by working to- gether. ami director robert Sin-


clair said: “the work un- dertaken has done much to cement the value that all parties bring to ensuring a vibrant and competitive mortgage market that works well for consumers.”


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