Speakers singing from the same hymn sheet were John Coffield, head of Paradigm Mortgage Services, Phil Rickards, head of BM Solutions and Ian Andrew, managing director of intermediary sales at Nationwide Building Society.
Advisers were told to Keep Calm and Carry On at FSE Cardiff today after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Speakers singing from the same hymn sheet were John Coffield, head of Paradigm Mortgage Services, Phil Rickards, head of BM Solutions and Ian Andrew, managing director of intermediary sales at Nationwide Building Society.
Coffield said: “My advice to advisers is to Keep Calm and Carry On.
“We might expect something of a kneejerk reaction in regard to the vote to leave the EU, and undoubtedly some people will use it to try and profiteer.
“However, as long as the banks and lenders have the money and appetite to lend, the market is still strong.”
Rickards refuted the suggestion that lenders like Lloyds have ‘gone to ground’ after the leave vote.
He said: “I want to reassure you that from our perspective it is business as usual.
“We are focused on helping Britain prosper and are committed to the various sectors our brands are involved in.”
Andrew acknowledged that the current period of political and economic uncertainty isn’t good for the market, but he felt the situation could be worse.
He said: “The market will be slightly subdued for some time but I don’t think we’ll see the retrenchment of credit like we did during the credit crunch.
“These are very early days and a period of uncertainty is clearly not good however I think it will settle down.
“At the moment it seems as good as we could have expected.”
Andrew hoped the Bank of England will refrain from cutting interest rates next month.
He added: “A drop to 0.25% might not be helpful to lenders as it would put a further squeeze on margins: For example, we would be cutting mortgage rates but not necessarily cutting the rates we pay to savers.”
Coffield rubbished the suggestion that a Brexit vote could dampen down mortgage regulation.
He said: “We are one, if not the, most regulated financial services’ sectors in the world, and this is driven a lot by the UK government.
“For instance, the MMR had a far larger impact on advisers than the MCD and it was driven by the UK Government. I can’t see the vote to leave cutting back on regulation.”
