The Financial Services Authority (FSA)

The Financial Services Authority (FSA)
The FSA is an independent body whose sole responsibility is to regulate the UK’s financial services industry.

The FSA has been given significant rule-making, investigatory and enforcement powers by the Government and has three specific strategic aims:

1 – Promoting efficient, orderly & fair markets
2 – Helping retail consumers achieve a fair deal
3 – Improving its business capability and effectiveness.

The FSA regulates a diverse range of financial markets including insurance, banking, mortgages & financial advice.

FSA members must be compliant with various rules & codes and are subject to strict regulatory procedures and audits.

Visit it: http://www.fsa.gov.uk

Mortgage – a definition

Mortgage – a definition
First up in a new series for our Mortgage Glossary we’ll have a look the definition of a mortgage.

A mortgage is a loan usually used to purchase property where the loan is secured against the property.

Mortgage repayments are usually made on a monthly basis, with the payment going towards both the interest on the mortgage and the outstanding mortgage amount (except in the case of interest-only mortgages).

The property is used as security against the mortgage in the event of the mortgagee not fulfilling their part of the mortgage contract/terms. The lender can force the sale of the property to repay the outstanding mortgage on the property.

UK mortgage rates coming down?

UK mortgage rates coming down
It’s been a funny week for mortgages in the UK with 3 of the largest mortgage providers tantalising the markets with competitive rate cuts on their fixed mortgage products.

Nationwide, Abbey & Halifax have all reviewed and cut mortgage rates across their product offering in line with reductions in the financial wholesale markets where the swap rate is now down 1% on June’s.

There’s been a steady slur of comments coming from mortgage insiders, many of whom are cautious to predict short term results, although some admitted that this could be good news for consumers in the wake of the recent credit crunch.

Halifax Mortgages

Halifax Mortgages
Up until the late 90’s the Halifax was the UK’s largest building society. In fact, I remember the day it officially floated on the LSE as my parents got a windfall worth about £3k. To this day I still have a cardcash account, although I haven’t used them for a mortgage just yet.

Halifax are widely renowned as the UK’s largest provider of residential mortgages and a merger with the Bank of Scotland in 2007 created HBOS, one of the UK’s largest Banks.

Halifax continues to offer a wide range of mortgage products including fixed rate mortgages and variable rate mortgages.

Visit it: http://www.halifax.co.uk/mortgages/home.asp

Online mortgage giant sheds 50 staff

Online mortgage giant sheds 50 staff
Mortgage woes! Unless you’ve been on the moon for the last few months you can’t have failed to notice the turmoil in the worldwide mortgage industry. Yesterday one of the UK’s online mortgage giants officially announced they’ll be saying goodbye to up to 54 staff.

The losses will be made in moneysupermarket’s Mortgage 2000 division, the company’s long established mortgage intermediary.

Obviously, as and outsider I don’t have access to the internal thoughts of the management team but I’m sure the decision to cut so many mortgage roles was not made lightly.

I’d just like mortgage monkey readers to spare a thought or two for the mortgage industry workers who have been affected by this move. I guess it serves as a stark reminder to us all that our jobs could be on the line whilst the mortgage market is down!

3 great mortgage blog posts

3 great mortgage blog posts
There are some fab personal finance blogs out there voicingsome interesting mortgage opinions and experiences. I thought I’d take a couple o minutes to pick out a few of the more salubrious mortgage posts for your perusal:

First up: dumblittleman.com
Dumblittleman is one of my favourite blogs offering interesting articles across an entire spectrum of self improvement topics. In this particular mortgage related post Jay offers up the pros and cons of Renting vs Buying.

Secondly: ncnblog.com
This great article from no credit needed discusses the virtues of setting saving goals before committing to a mortgage.  

Last but not least: paidtwice.com
Paidtwice always dishes up some honest commentary on their personal financial situation so here you’ll find an excellent account of a personal attitude towards mortgage repayments. Great stuff!

Council of Mortgage Lenders

The Council of Mortgage Lenders is the trade association for the UK mortgage industry who’s aim is to ‘promote a thriving environment for the UK’s housing and mortgage markets’.

The CML’s members include the UKs leading banks, building society’s and mortgage brokers who rely on the Council of Mortgage lenders as a central hub of legal, financial and statistical support and data for the UK’s mortgage industry. The Council also acts as the mortgage industry’s key link with the Government.

The Council offers a searchable directory of it’s members, all of whom pay a fee to be a registered member. Registered members have access to a wide variety of private information and research about the mortgage market.

Visit it: http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/home

US consumers urged to fix mortgage rates

US consumers urged to fix mortgage rates
A great article here from CNNMoney suggesting that consumers should look to lock into fixed interest mortgage deals as soon as possible.

The article (click here) urges buyers to lock into fixed rate mortgages to counteract the volatile market situation and secure their mortgages over the long term. On the back of research by bankrate.com, a handful of respectable finance professionals including Dan Dowling (president of United Mortgage Capital Corp) predict that rates will start to creep up within the next six weeks.

So, it seems, if you’re in the US, and you’re still eligable for a reasonable mortgage deal . . . make it a fixed mortgage deal! (accoprding to Bankrate.com & CNN Money anyway!)

House Prices Fall June 2008

According to latest figures released last week by the Land Registry Office showed that national house prices fell by 1% in June 2008. £180,781 is now the national average after a serial 10 month decline. Figures also showed a 39% decrease on completions in April 2008 and the same period last year.

BBC Mortgage Calculator

The BBC Mortgage Calculator
The mortgage calculator from the BBC appears to be one of the most popular mortgage calculators available at the moment. Indeed, it frequent’s the top 10 for the term ‘mortgage’ on Google in the UK.

The BBC mortgage calculator offers a quick and easy way to get calculate prospective mortgage deals, allowing you to input:

• Mortgage Required
• Repayment Period
• Interest Rate

Which, in turn, calculates:

• Monthly Repayment
• Interest Only Repayment

It even goes on to show you what will happen if interest rates soar to 12%!

Visit it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/mortgagecalculator.shtml