Hello again readers,
I hope you are all keeping safe and well and if you need any assistance with your mortgage finance or insurance needs, please feel free to email / call me and I will be happy to help.
It has been a busy week in the interest rate world, with Santander, Kensington, Bluestone, Leeds, Furness, Platform, Barclays, Melton, Ipswich, Mansfield and Nationwide all announcing changes.
In criteria news, TSB has made significant changes to its self-employed criteria, including increasing its loan to income (LTI) multiple, to ensure its treatment of such borrowers is “clear and straightforward”.
Halifax have also revised their self- employed criteria.
Ipswich Building Society is improving its criteria for lending to older borrowers by allowing more flexibility when assessing SIPP/pension funds in affordability calculations for over 55s.
Leeds announces a change to their holiday let criteria and will now base their underwriting decision on affordability using an average of low, medium and high season expected rental income figures.
In wider news, according to government statistics, more than 55,000 households bought their home using the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme in the 2020/21 financial year. The scheme is intended to help first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder. The government said the total value of equity loans has now reached more than £20 billion, with the value of the properties sold under the scheme going past the £90 billion mark.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Over 55,000 households bought their home with the support of Help to Buy: Equity Loan last year – a record year for the scheme, which is helping young people and first-time buyers feel the sense of pride and achievement that comes with owning your own home.
In Insurance news, the insurance industry paid out a record £6.2bn in life insurance, income protection and critical illness claims last year, according to figures from the Association of British Insurers and Group Risk Development. The amount paid out is equal to £17m a day, with the total value of claims paid up 8 per cent on 2019.
Non-disclosure was the biggest reason for declining individual income protection claims, the ABI said. Nevertheless almost all claims (98 per cent) were paid, which was in line with 2019, when the share of protection claims paid by the industry reached 98.3 per cent and £5.7bn was paid out.
Insurers paid out £202m, the equivalent of £553,000 every day, to support the families of people who died due to coronavirus in 2020.
If you need help looking into the wordings and definitions of a new plan, please feel free to get in touch and I’ll be happy to help arrange the new cover.
I hope you found this post of interest and feel free to get in touch with me if you need any help with your mortgage or insurance needs,
All the very best,
Richard Johnson
Cert CII (MP), CeCM, AdvCemap, CeRGI
Mortgage and Insurance Consultant.
Mobile Phone ; 07881802962
Office : 0208 245 8464 direct dial
Email : richard@rjmortgagefinance.co.uk
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2020 BLOGS 2019 BLOGS |
will link to other dates |
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