Looking towards the longer term, the firm are capping all rates on the First National range of mortgages at 95%, with tighter criteria over 90% LTV and limit second charge LTV to 90%.
The changes will be effective from Monday 20 August and apply to all packaged cases submitted after Friday 7 September for first mortgages and 24 August for seconds.
Duncan Berry, head of mortgage sales at GE Money Home Lending, said: “It is clearly a turbulent time in the market and we expect smaller lenders will find the coming months a struggle, with many withdrawing products, reviewing pricing and tightening criteria.
“For GE Money Home Lending, being a balance sheet lender does have some benefits: we are not as directly exposed to current market conditions as some and have excellent visibility of the profile and performance of our portfolio.
“GE Money Home Lending remains committed to being a leader in the specialist market and these steps position us for a long-term partnership with our customers and intermediaries.
With a tightening housing market and affordability pressure building, we would expect other lenders to follow in reviewing their criteria to ensure they are lending prudently and, most importantly, that their products are designed to be suitable and affordable for customers.”
