Publishing its trading statement to the Stock Exchange, the lender admitted ‘the retention strategy introduced in the latter part of 2006, designed to trade an element of gross share for improved principal repaid, had not delivered the anticipated benefits’, although market share did recover towards 15-20 per cent by May.
Mark Hemingway, head of media relations at Halifax, said the group had made changes to its operation but retention would remain at the forefront of its thinking.
get the daily news delivered to your inbox
“Our retention strategy has been hugely successful in helping us retain £5 billion of business. However, in implementing it, we got our pricing structure wrong as we tried to bring new product pricing more into line with existing customers. While this was relatively successful, it meant we weren’t the most competitive and especially for those people coming off of two-year fixes priced at 4 per cent, this odd 0.1 per cent on the headline rate was vital in their decision.”
Richard Fox, chief executive of the Society of Mortgage Professionals, admitted:
“I’m surprised that such a big brand has slipped so far; perhaps on the back of reduced marketing. It is a reminder to brokers that where they have a client looking to renew a mortgage, they are obliged to give best advice and if it isn’t the most competitive deal, they must look elsewhere.”
However, Dev Malle, director of mortgage distribution at Personal Touch, said: “Halifax has been very aggressive in the last month, so I think it will have an enormous June.”
find out more about this weeks industry news
