Both Coventry Building Society and RBS Intermediary Partners, through its NatWest brand, announced changes to its lending criteria, with the aim of bringing their offerings into line with the rest of the market.
Coventry has reduced its rental calculation from 130 per cent to 120 per cent, doubled the maximum number and value of properties allowed in a portfolio and removed income requirements on loans below 65 per cent loan-to-value (LTV).
Julie Jones, head of intermediary sales at Coventry, commented: “Clearly we want to help more people but we’ve reacted to the market as we looked at the rental calculations out there and brought ours into line. We’ve not followed others who have cut their criteria hard but as we are using pay rate, we feel it keeps us competitive.”
RBS IP also said the motivation behind its move was to bring itself into line with the rest of the market, with maximum LTVs raised from 80 per cent to 85 per cent, no minimum income requirement and enhancements to its rental calculation.
Mark Sismey-Durrant, chief executive of Heritable Bank, said it was also reviewing its criteria at the present time and highlighted the importance of criteria when it comes to sourcing systems.
“There is nothing in all these moves to say that anyone is being reckless but just that they are making sensible moves to bring themselves into line with the rest of the market. There is plenty of business out there but also a lot of lenders so that doesn’t automatically mean you are going to write more business if you relax your criteria. However, if your criteria is off, you can find yourselves cut off on sourcing systems.”
