Mortgage lenders temporarily withdraw mortgage products amid turmoil

The volatility in the financial markets is forcing some mortgage producers to temporarily suspend their products.

Leading lenders, including Virgin Money, Skipton Building Society and Halifax, temporarily withdrew their mortgage ranges for new customers yesterday owed to the volatility in sterling funding markets, according to emails sent to brokers.

“Following a number of changes in the market, we have made the decision to temporarily withdraw all our products for new customers at 8pm tonight,” Virgin Money said in its email to brokers, seen by Reuters.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely and currently plan to relaunch products for new customers towards the end of the week.”

The trend was started by Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, early yesterday after the lender announced that it had temporarily withdrawn from the market all of its mortgage products that come with a fee, in response to turmoil in British funding markets.

A Halifax spokesperson said in a statement: “As a result of significant changes in the cost of funding, we’re making some changes to our product range.”

ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, who is a former economics editor for the BBC, tweeted last night: “The Bank of England signals we are in a crisis after the emergency budget and says it won’t hesitate to put up interest rates – and the pound falls again. Which shows the Bank and Chancellor both have serious credibility problems. Worrying.”

SOURCE: Property Industry Eye | SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 | MARC DA SILVA