P IS FOR PLATFORM AND PRECISE
Yet another demonstration that being owned by a mutual doesn’t have to hinder innovation and a progressive approach. Borrower verification can be a touch prescriptive but there are few flaws in its game. The buy-to-let offering is market- leading especially on low LTV stuff and its systems and website are first rate as are its low fee offerings. Grade: B+
Time for the Monetary Policy Committee to get its grades. The two great unanswered questions of 2011: just where did £75bn go? And why does anyone still watch the vanity-fest that is X Factor? Anyhow. Here’s the rub. We have a strong currency, low interest rates and a credible plan for the recovery (I’m sounding like Tory-Boy now) so at least unlike some world economies we can hopefully influence the pace of the recovery. Is it too much to ask however that this time around the authorities ensure that the cash gets to the right places? Grade: C (must do better)
R IS FOR REDEMPTIONS
P is also for Precise Mortgages who I feel some sympathy for. This is an A-grade executive with some excellent operating features. But for reasons beyond their control (and to be fair, many other nascent specialist lenders’) they are rightly being discerning about where they can be positioned on the risk curve for now. My hunch is that whilst it may take a little longer, by 2013 Precise will be steering their shiny red vehicle more in the style of Ferdinand Alonso than Reg Varney. Grade: B
Q IS FOR QUANTATATIVE EASING
There is allegedly going to be circa £125bn of loans on standard variable rates of one kind or another next year. The problem is that the proportion of this that’s up for grabs is less than you might think once you take into account lender forbearance, LTV profiles and borrowers’ credit profiles and earnings. But the re-mortgage market will surely be stronger in 2012. Grade: C
Skipton and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries director Robert Sinclair have each had a stellar year. Both have been hugely supportive of the intermediary sector over a sustained period and both have had to attend to some irksome housekeeping this past year. But each of them enjoys tremendous goodwill from brokers and once their yards have been tidied I expect each of them to flourish in 2012. Particular mention should be made for Sinclair who is to the trade body what Sergei Bubka was to breaking world pole vaulting records. Grades: Skipton B-; Sinclair B+
mortgage introducer DECEMBER 2011 31
“We have a strong currency, low interest rates and a credible plan for the recovery... so at least unlike some world economies we can hopefully influ- ence the pace of the recovery. Is it too much to ask however that this time around the authorities ensure that the cash gets to the right places?”
S IS FOR SKIPTON AND SINCLAIR
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