News
Print friendly version 10 Mar 2010

Few best-buys from state-owned banks

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) and Northern Rock account for fewer than one in six best-buy mortgage products.

Mortgage software provider Evaluate Technologies calculates that the ‘good’ bank part of Northern Rock which is still writing new mortgage business, provides eight of the 50 best-buy deals currently on offer, but the partly state-owned LBG has no best-buy products at all.

LBG is 41% owned by the state, and Northern Rock 100%. There has been speculation that the Government would bring pressure on them to offer competitive deals to first-time buyers and kickstart the housing market.

However, both lenders are under pressure to generate maximum profits in order to pay back the taxpayer. The fact that LBG in particular has no best buy mortgages suggests that its appetite for more, and more risky lending remains absent.

Evaluate dubs the part-nationalised and fully nationalized lenders ‘The Bank of Gordon’, consisting of Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham & Gloucester, NatWest, Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland, The One Account and Scottish Widows.

Jim Barrowman, national accounts director at Evaluate Technologies said:

“The nationalised banks don’t appear to be doing much to compete for mortgage customers’ business.

“The Bank of Gordon has been accused of increasing margins on mortgage customers and their failure to appear regularly amongst the best-buys despite the lenders size, would seem to suggest this is the case.”

Evaluate reports that the lender with the most consistently competitive mortgages is Santander (formerly Abbey) offering nine products either directly or through Abbey for Intermediaries, while HSBC offers eight products either direct or through First Direct.



STAY UP TO DATE: Subscribe to email alerts Subscribe to RSS

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE:

Login to add a comment

Need to register? Click Here








The truth about house prices

We are constantly bombarded with, often conflicting, information regarding house prices. Paula John provides a round-up of the major indices, explaining why they differ.


Read on...

Save money by overpaying

Michael White of online advisers Email Mortgages explains the benefits of paying more than you are obliged to for your mortgage every month.
Read on...

Your Mortgage magazine

Your Mortgage coverThe July/Aug issue of Your Mortgage is on sale now. In it we explain who now owns which UK banks and building societies; the ins and outs of interest-only mortgages, who they are appropriate for and the options for paying them off; we explain how offset mortgages work and how you could use one to make the most of your money, and why buying property overseas right now could be a smart move – if you look in the right place and arrange the right finance. Get your copy for the latest news, information and help.

Your Mortgage Awards

Your Mortgage Awards The Your Mortgage Awards aim to reward those lenders that have excelled in providing innovative and competitive products. Widely regarded as the UK's definitive consumer mortgage awards, the Your Mortgage Awards have now been running for 20 years.

Read about all the winners from the 2009-2010 awards in our e-magazine
Your Money logo
Latest news from Your Money

Visit Your Money website
Photo of Paula John, Editor In Chief of Your Mortgage Magazine
Visit the mortgage news section for all the latest developments affecting the UK property market.

Use our range of mortgage calculators to work out how much you could borrow.
divider

Online Poll

divider
divider
divider

Sponsored Links.

-->