Specialist Mortgage Lenders (Lenders Still Trading)

1) Accord Mortgages Limited

• Accord Mortgages is a dedicated Intermediary-only brand of Yorkshire Building Society that launched in April 2003. The Yorkshire Building Society is the 2nd largest building society in the UK.
• During the sub-prime market crisis, Accord Mortgages offered a type of mortgage called a ‘Credit Repair Mortgage’.  This was aimed at customers who had a less than perfect credit history but as long as payment were made on time and no payments were missed, the company would offer a prime mortgage quote when the current deal came to an end.
• The types of products that Accord Mortgages offer are: House purchase and Remortgage, Remortgage or House Purchase Only or Larger Loans.  The company only offer products through a select lending panel.

2) Bank of Ireland

• The Bank of Ireland began in 1783. The companies trading name is Bank of Ireland (UK) plc.
• Part of Bank of Ireland’s UK banking business transferred to a new UK subsidiary, Bank of Ireland (UK) plc on 1 November 2010. The new subsidiary is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
• In January 2009, the Bank of Ireland scaled back the level of business that it had within the UK market due to the sub-prime crisis.  This resulted in over 600 job cuts and the closure of the Bristol & West brand.  The brand was bought by Bank of Ireland in 1997.
• The bank also offered a unique mortgage product called 1st Start.  This is a joint mortgage where a first time buyer is allowed to use a parent’s income to enhance the potential that the customer could borrow.
• The bank is heavily involved with the Post Office in their savings account, credit card, mortgage or insurance areas.
• In November 2008, the Bank of Ireland was given state aid, the first time an Irish bank has been given this.  The Irish Government agreed to take part in a £2bn bailout that will be led by private equity.

3) Bank of Scotland

• The Bank of Scotland was originally founded in 1695. The Bank of Scotland merged with Halifax in September 2001 to form HBOS and is the UK’s largest mortgage and savings provider. In 2008, the Bank of Scotland became a key part of the Lloyds Banking Group after the acquisition of HBOS by the Lloyds TSB Group. The new group began trading in January 2009.
• Best Overall Lender 2002-2010 (Your Mortgage Awards)
• The Bank of Scotland provides homeowner mortgages through Halifax but commercial mortgages are provided by themselves.  In this area, the Bank of Scotland offers commercial and marine mortgages, property finance and Smartfinance.
• In 2009, Bank of Scotland was under the spotlight alongside Barclays concerning Shared Appreciation Mortgages (SAMs) that were offered between 1996 and 1998. This type of mortgage was a loan up to 25% of the property value but the borrower then gave up 75% of the appreciation of the property.  A consumer action group is suing the two banks
• In September 2010, FOS found that Bank of Scotland received the highest number of mortgage complaints between January and June 2010.

4) BM Solutions (Birmingham Midshires)

• BM Solutions is part of the HBOS group of mortgage lenders until 2008 after the acquisition of HBOS by the Lloyds TSB Group (LBG).  This new group then began trading in January 2009.
• In March 2008, BM Solutions withdrew all of its self-certification sub-prime products after a range of other sub-prime lenders had either removed all of their own sub-prime products or had left the market altogether.
• A key feature of their business is the One Minute Mortgage system.  This allows applications to be received online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and a decision will be made on a mortgage application in one minute.
• 6th year running receiving ‘five star service’ award at Financial Adviser awards
• Current products available include: Buy to let, Self Build, Residential Mortgages, Let to Buy and International Mortgages. These products are available through intermediaries.

5) Capital Home Loans

• Capital Home Loans is wholly owned by Irish Life and Permanent plc, after its acquisition in 1996.
• Capital Home Loans trades through intermediaries with particular attention to the prime and buy to let mortgage market.
• Not accepting any new applications at the moment do a high number of back-logged cases but remortgages are available for existing customers.  The company withdrew its residential and buy to let products from the market in March 2008 but confirmed that it would return with those products by Q3 of 2008.
• From January 2010, Capital Home Loans is also administering the loan book of Irish Permanent International.

6) GE Money

• GE Money parent company is General Electric.  GE Money is part of the GE Money Home Lending (GEMHL), a leading financial provider in the UK.  In 2001, igroup was bought by the GEMHL and in 2003, First National was purchased by the same group. Still offering mortgages through intermediaries
• GE Money is still offering mortgages through intermediaries and will follow GE Mortgage Base Rate but is not lending to self-employed applicants.
• In September 2008, GE Money became the first lender to be fined by the FSA for inadequacies in its lending process with its ‘retention clause’.  The retention clause means that part of the money to purchase a house is held back until essential works are carried out on the property.  This can be in place for up to 6 months where interest is charged on the entire loan.  After the period, the interest should either be returned to the customer or the money used to decrease the outstanding mortgage.  GE Money did not make this clause clear and the money accrued was not returned to the customers or their mortgage balance. The company was fined £1.12m.

7) Godiva

• Godiva Mortgages Limited was launched in March 2007.  The company is a subsidiary of Coventry Building Society.
• The company has products available in the buy to let, residential, product transfer, further advance and equity release (lifetime mortgage) areas.
• In September 2010, the company offered some of the best prime residential rates around at the time (2.49% and 2.99% fixed) and further rate cuts were seen the following month.

8) Kensington Mortgage Company

• Kensington and Kensington Mortgages is a trading name of Kensington Mortgage Company Ltd. Kensington Mortgages was founded in 1995. By 2000, Kensington Mortgages, which is part of the Kensington Group, achieved plc status.  This is special as it was the first stock exchange listed company to operate in the mortgage sector.
• Kensington was bought by Investec, the South African investment bank, for £283m in May 2007.  This was crucial for Kensington as they were effectively bailed-out as the profits were significantly down on a repeating basis.
• Kensington pulled out of the sub-prime market in July 2007 but re-entered in November 2009 lending only via brokers and to people with small amounts of bad credit (near prime).
• The company was fined £1.2m by FSA in Apr10 2010 for unfair and excessive charges to customers in arrears and a further £1.1m to affected customers.
• Kensington advertises itself as offering mortgages to customers who are overlooked on the high street.

9) Northern Rock

• Northern Rock was originally the Northern Rock Building Society until 1997 when it floated on the London Stock Exchange and became a bank.  Northern Rock was one of the most public casualties of the ‘credit crunch’ by first having to ask the Bank of England in 1997 for a loan facility and then became a nationalised bank in 1998 after failing to find a commercial buyer.  Before becoming a nationalised bank, Northern Rock specialised in Together Loans.  This type of loan allowed customer to borrow more than the value of the property.
• In October 2009, Northern Rock was approved by the European Commission to effectively split into two banks; the good bank (Northern Rock) and the bad bank (Northern Rock Asset Management).  The good bank will receive the brand, the majority of customer’s deposits, the top-rated mortgages and branch network. The bad bank will receive the lower performing mortgages. These changes came into effect on 1 January 2010.
• However, the company is still in the press as a ‘bad’ bank, due to high bonuses being paid whilst they are public owned and owing big debts.
• Current mortgage offers include 2, 3 and 5 year fixed & tracker deals. The lending began again after the bank’s new business plan allowed them to offer £14bn worth of mortgages over a two year period.  This was a result in a change in policy by the government to increase the availability of credit in the market.

10) Platform Homeloans

• Platform is the intermediary lender of the Co-Operative Bank plc. The company was launched in 2003 after the merger of Verso and Platform Home Loans. Both of these companies were Britannia Building Society subsidiaries. In August 2009, Britannia and The Co-operative Financial Services merged.
• The company has won Your Mortgage Award for Best Intermediary Mortgage Lender for 4 years.
• The company is still trading today with Almost Prime, Buy to Let and Mainstream mortgages through intermediaries.
• In November 2009, the company withdrew from the self-certification market.  Platform was the last significant self-certification lender to leave the market in that specific area.
• In June 2010, the company offered a 7 year fixed rate mortgage.

11) The Mortgage Works (TMW)

• TMW was originally called Sun Bank but after the purchase of the bank to Portman Building Society in 2001, the FSA imposed a 2 year limitation to its banking license. When the banking license terminated, the Sun Bank changed its name to The Mortgage Works.  Portman Building Society merged with Nationwide Building Society in August 2007.
• The TMW is a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society that offers products direct to the customer, through a contact centre, or through intermediaries. Nationwide Building Society is the largest building society in the UK and the 3rd largest mortgage provider.
• TMW has won numerous awards within the industry and a high number of those were within the Buy to Let Market.
• TMW is still trading with products currently available for Buy to Let, Let to Buy, Prime Mortgages and Guarantor Mortgages.

 

 

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