Contents A little bit of hope for Christmas
Every story has a turning point and in C.S. Lewis’ epic adventure The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that turning point is the arrival of Father Christmas. After centuries of ice-ridden misery in Narnia the Snow Queen loses her grip on the land and a little bit of goodness creeps in. The children are given their Christmas gifts and with them, the little bit of hope that helps them to overthrow the evil queen. While centuries of cold and an evil snow queen rather over- eggs the situation in the mortgage market, lending has been on
ice for nearly three years now. But in terms of creating a new regulatory environment that will help to heal the market, there may be the beginnings of a thaw and the arrival of our own little bit of hope just in time for Christmas. Last month saw the publication of CP10/28, the third and fi nal Mortgage Market
Review consultation paper from the Financial Services Authority - this time focusing on distribution and disclosure. In stark contrast to the industry’s reaction to the second FSA paper on responsible lending, this paper has received small cheer. Our cover feature, which starts on page 22, looks at the likely impact of the latest
paper. Many of the proposed changes should “level the playing fi eld” between intermediaries and bank-based advisers, says AMI director, Robert Sinclair. Though lenders and trade bodies are reserving judgement, remembering that
CP10/28 is just one of three MMR consultation papers, they too admit that the regulator appears in this paper to be applying the “common sense” it claims so often. Elsewhere, brokers have been reminded that in spite of Bank base rate being kept
on hold at 0.5%, the remortgage market presents opportunities for business. Barclays Intermediary Business Director, David Finlay, says 750,000 people
are sitting on lenders’ standard variable rates who could get a better deal by remortgaging. And industry pundit, Jonathan Cornell, says with house prices looking choppy again, now’s the time to pick up the phone to your clients and help them understand the benefi ts of remortgaging soon. Finally, check out our new website features at www
.mortgageintroducer.com.
Using the new tool bar at the bottom of your screen you can now search the website, link to Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in and my space and join live chat with other Mortgage Introducer readers. While it might be tough to believe while the snow is still falling, Christmas is on its way, even in the mortgage market. There’s much to be worked out and many debates still to be had, but the ring of Father Christmas’ sleigh bells can be heard faintly. Happy Christmas to all our readers.
Sarah Davidson, Deputy Editor Issue 29 December 2010 Editor
Nia Williams, 0207 490 0693
Nia@thepublishinggroup.co.uk
Deputy Editor
Sarah Davidson, 020 7490 1365
Sarah@thepublishinggroup.co.uk
Publisher
Robyn Hall, 0207 490 0588
Robyn@thepublishinggroup.co.uk
Advertising Manager Matt Bond, 020 7490 0588
Matt@thepublishinggroup.co.uk
Subscriptions Andrew Goldsmith, 0207 490 0622
Andrew@thepublishinggroup.co.uk
Head of Production
Melanie Jones, 020 8290 4999
melanie@mortgageintroducer.com
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4 News Review 6 MMR News Review 8 Buy-to-let News Review 10 Equity Release News Review 11 Protection News Review 12 General Insurance News Review 14 Product News Review 15 Specialist Prime News Review
16 Sale and Rent Back News Review 17 Market News Review
18 The Bigger Issue Vote in our poll and see what the experts think 20 Questions from Hell All your regulatory queries answered 21 Letters
Have your say 22 Small Christmas cheer
Reaction to the MMR consultation paper on distribution and disclosure 28 The Interview MI talks to Paragon’s John Heron 32 What do consumers want? Demand for BTL and ASU around the UK
36 Commercial News Review 37 Commercial News Opinion 39 The NACFB looks forward Is there is any evidence of the mythical recovery?
42 Hall of Fame Who is infamous this month?
Pain relief for Homeowners and Mortgage Brokers. Visit
www.precisemortgages.co.uk to view the new Home Owner range.
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