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1 month ago | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
There was a significant increase in remortgaging activity in the UK’s housing market during the first quarter of 2025, according to research by Legal & General (L&G). New proprietary data from L&G’s Ignite platform showed that broker searches for remortgage products increased by 34% in Q1 2025 compared to Q4 2024.
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2 months ago | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Annual house price growth accelerated to 5.4% in the year to February, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has shown
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Mar 18, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Mortgage advisers are failing over-50s on later life lending advice by not making them aware of all their options, Key Later Life Finance has warned. The firm believes mortgage advisers are missing out on a “huge opportunity” to grow their businesses and deliver better customer outcomes under Consumer Duty rules. Key cited Bank of England figures that showed that more than two out of five mortgages now run past retirement age, highlighting a need for a new approach from mortgage advisers.
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Mar 18, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
The average number of monthly mortgage completions has increased by 26% in the wake of the Autumn Budget since changes to stamp duty were first announced, data released by Barclays has shown. The bank said this has largely been driven by a 59% surge in first-time buyer purchases, whose share of completions has risen seven percentage points, from 29% to 36%.
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Mar 17, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Metro Bank has launched a new partnership with Covecta, an AI platform for financial services that will be deployed across its corporate and commercial credit businesses. Covecta is a third-party Agentic AI solution that completes tasks across the end-to-end loan lifecycle, from lead acquisition to servicing. Metro Bank and Covecta found that each completed task allowed for a 60-80% reduction in time, creating significant improvements in team efficiency, decision making and risk analysis.
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Mar 17, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
The number of cash ISA products available on the market has risen to 598 deals, its highest ever level, according to new data published by Moneyfacts. Product choice across the savings market overall did fall slightly to 2,146 savings deals this month, although this is still the second highest count on Moneyfacts’ records, going back to February 2007.
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Mar 14, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
The commercial lending arm of Yorkshire Building Society, YBS Commercial Mortgages, grew its balance sheet to £2.2bn in 2024. The commercial lender completed £453m of commercial mortgage loans during the year, £377m of which went into servicing the private rental sector, and £76m into commercial real estate, which includes the lender’s commercial investment, semi-commercial and owner-occupied product offerings.
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Mar 14, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Gross lending to UK SMEs by the main high street banks increased by 13% in 2024 to just over £16bn, new figures released by UK Finance have shown. The banking trade body revealed that gross lending was up in each quarter last year compared to their corresponding quarters in 2023. However, UK Finance noted that SME lending remains significantly below the levels reported in the years prior to the COVID pandemic.
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Mar 13, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Octopus Money has launched a new partnership with Aveni.ai which will see the firm adopt Aveni’s AI solutions across its adviser and coaching teams. Following a successful trial, Octopus Money has adopted Aveni Detect and Aveni Assist to allow customers receive support while ensuring the requirements of Consumer Duty compliance are being fully met.
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Mar 13, 2025 | 
moneyage.co.uk | Michael J. Griffiths
Over one in three UK landlords (36%) are planning to expand their property portfolios in 2025, a new study by Market Financial Solutions has indicated. This compared to just 9% of landlords who plan to reduce the number of buy-to-let (BTL) properties they own. Market Financial Solutions commissioned an independent survey of 300 UK landlords to gauge their sentiment towards the BTL market and their plans for the next 12 months.
