News Review: The Month That Was
The Good, the Bad, the This month The Outlaw draws some more tongue in cheek parallels betw by The Outlaw A
ny political persuasions may in- variably colour your thinking on whether good news outweighs
any other this month. But The Outlaw sees more good than bad or boring items albeit in wider society there con- tinue to be a spate of vulgarities which are irritating! Economic or industry trend lines are promising – be this the January Budget surplus, stats on first-time buyers, year on year lending figures or the Bank’s lat- est round of quantitative easing. Some neutering of interest-only poli- cies aside there is plenty to feel better about. Halifax is arguably the grand old lady of the industry and her service lev- els would make Mary Poppins proud. She can however, be a touch racier than many brokers might be aware of in cer- tain areas such as accepting one year’s accounts for the self-employed. Don’t be fooled in to thinking that she only wants stereotypical cases. Some notables elsewhere include the
Woolwich believe it or not whose funds reservation piece is now pretty excep- tional. Service there has gradually im- proved and watch out also for a possibly constructive approach to the first-time buyer market in the next quarter. Building societies are starting 2012
as they finished 2011. The Outlaw par- ticularly rates the present offerings from Accord, Coventry, Leeds and Skipton. A lesser exposure to toxic sub-prime as- sets and stronger retail savings flows have assisted no doubt. In parallel worlds, The Outlaw was
24 MORTGAGE INTRODUCER MARCH 2012 Photo © Christopher Macsurak Modesty, good grace and self depracation
“Halifax is arguably the grand old lady of the industry and her service levels would make Mary Poppins proud. She can however, be a touch racier than many brokers might be aware of”
impressed by the feats of Adele and No- vak Djokovic who both proved that you can be a sector champion with modesty, good grace and self deprecation. The approved clearing of riff-raff
from the hallowed steps of St Paul’s Ca- thedral was also a joyous event.
L
ess credible has been the behav- iour of the Financial Services Authority in kicking the indi- vidual registration of brokers deep into the Serengeti. If it’s not “practically pos- sible” to implement such a noble policy
Guilty before proven innocent
at the nadir of the market then it’s cer- tainly won’t be once the recovery has taken hold and the broker population has regenerated, possibly with some of the delinquents having crept back in. Abbey’s interest-only stance is clearly
unwelcome news. No amount of deri- sion from The Outlaw will reverse the decision so I’m keeping my guns hol- stered on that one.
What should be a cause for celebra-
tion however, is the lobbying of support for Clydesdale a propos of National Aus- tralia Bank’s strategic review. However satisfactorily its banking arm has per- formed or otherwise, if NAB were to cur- tail Clydesdale’s mortgage operations it would be very bad news indeed. Memo to the NAB exec – put the gun down and step away from the subsidiary! That particular outcome won’t be
known until May, which synchronises neatly with the fates of John Terry, Chris Huhne and Glasgow Rangers FC. The Outlaw is left asking these three enti- ties: “Why?” In all three cases it appears that the
gravity of an alleged initial event then came to be compounded by a subse-
www.mortgageintroducer.com Photo © Paulblank
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