Blanchard Consultancy – the independent construction consultant

Despite the growing clamour for stricter rules-based regulation, Mr Flint urged policymakers to stand by – and increase – principles-based oversight when they eventually turn their attention to banking reform.

"Supervision is about having more principles," he said. "We have moved towards regulation and away from supervision and now we need to move back. The challenge will be to resource it, as it's more expensive to supervise the banks."

He added that regulators were more likely to demand greater "standardisation" of banking products, curtailing profitable but often ill-conceived "bespoke" creations, and end the shadow banking market of over-the-counter derivatives, where the vast majority of "toxic" assets have proliferated.

Stuart Gulliver, head of global banking and markets, said moving such derivatives on to an exchange – operating much like the traditional stock market – would be "incredibly welcome".

Read more at Telegraph online

Labels: FCC, HSBC, uk mortgage market

Which banks have passed on the base rate cut and which haven't?

Heroes

HBOS, owner of Halifax, the UK's biggest lender

Market share: 20.1%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £73.1bn

HBOS bowed to immense pressure and passed on Thursday's 1.5 per cent cut to its SVR across all four of its mortgage brands — Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires and Intelligent Finance. It was also one of the first to pass on last month's half-point cut in full to borrowers on a variable rate. HBOS is one of the three banks accepting taxpayers cash as part of the Government's £37 billion bail-out of the banking industry.

Lloyds TSB, owner of Chelthenham & Gloucester and Scottish Widows

Market share: 8.1%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £29.5bn

The first to pass on Thursday's 1.5 per cent, Lloyds TSB is reducing its standard variable rate (SVR) by the full amount to 5 per cent from December 1. The move will reduce monthly repayments by £187 on a £150,000 interest-only mortgage. Scottish Widows, the mortgage lender which is part of the Lloyds TSB group, also said it was reducing its SVR today by 1.5 percentage points to 4.99 per cent.

Abbey

Market share: 9.8%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £35.6bn

The bank, which is owned by Spain's Santander and is the UK's second biggest lender, was the second to cut its SVR on Thursday by the full 1.5 per cent, reducing it from 6.94 per cent to 5.44 per cent from December 1.

Bradford & Bingley

Market share: 3.9%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £14bn

The nationalised lender cut its product variable rate (PVR) by 1.5 per cent on Friday morning. However, as its PVR is pegged to the base rate, Bradford & Bingley had no choice but to pass it on to borrowers. Around 15 per cent of Bradford & Bingley's mortgages are on the PVR. The lender also passed the full 1.5 per cent cut to a small number of borrowers on its standard variable rate .

Nationwide

Market share: 9.3%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £33.9bn

Britain's biggest building society and third biggest lender was the first to cut its base rate by the full amount following a meeting with the Chancellor attended by Nationwide and the major high street banks on Friday morning. Its SVR will fall from from 6.19% to 4.69% to December 1.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its sister NatWest

Market share: 6.2%; Gross mortgage lending in 2007: £22.6bn

RBS announced it was cutting the SVR by the full 1.5 percentage points from December 1. RBS was under particular pressure to cut its rates as it is set to take the biggest share of taxpayers cash in the Government's £37 billion bail out of the UK's banking industry. It's SVR has fallen from 6.69 per cent to 5.19 per cent.

Read the full article at Times online

Labels: credit crunch, HBOS, HSBC, LLoyds, RBS, UK Interest rates

Shares in Barratt Developments soared yesterday after reports that the embattled housebuilder had reached a deal with banks to put its finances on a firmer footing.

The company's shares jumped more than 25 per cent after Building magazine reported that the housebuilder had reached an agreement with banks to waive a clause that would have put Barratt in breach of its banking covenants after a land valuation writedown later this year.

Analysts said the reported deal was a encouraging sign that banks would help not to allow housebuilders to break their covenants.

The agreement would make other refinancing options that have been mooted in recent weeks, such as a debt-equity swap or a share issue, much less likely for the sector's most indebted.
It was reported that the waiver would remain until Barratt had repaid the remaining £400million it borrowed to fund the £2.2billion acquisition of Wilson Bowden in February last year, and that it has until the 2011 to do so.

The banks - Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, HSBC and Lloyds - joined Barratt in saying that they would not comment on the reports but the housebuilder confirmed that talks were continuing.

A Barratt spokesman said: “We continue to have constructive discussions with all of the banks and have nothing to add to our statement from last week.”

However, sources close to the talks played down the reports, saying no such deal had been made yet.

That did not stop the speculation sending shares in Barratt soaring, with other rivals such as Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey also seeing rises close to double digits on the back of the market rumours.

Shares in Barratt closed up 12 per cent, or 9.5p, to 87.75p.

The possible deal was first suggested last week when Mark Clare, the chief executive, said he believed “we could get some sort of waiver” from banks allowing limits to be breached temporarily while the company looked to secure funding from sales or from investors.

Despite the jump in price, Barratt's shares are currently worth a tenth of their value a year ago.

Original story from Times Business

Labels: Barratt Developments, Building Magazine, House market, Housebuilders, HSBC, LLoyds, RBS