Styles, an economist by training who has held a variety of senior executive roles in the banking and lending industry will join Hometrack from his post as chairman of Acadametrics, a London-based risk and economics consulting practice that produces the Financial Times house price index. He was previously head of group planning and group chief economist at HBOS for over fifteen years and was responsible for the Halifax House Price Index and the Halifax Economic Outlook for many years.
Styles has been appointed by Hometrack to devise Hometrack’s Basel II strategy which includes the development, launch and management of the new product called RealRisk targeted at the mortgage markets in response to Basel II requirements.
In order to meet the requirements of Basel II, lenders require information beyond valuation at mortgage application stage to adopt best practice credit risk management. Information that is central to risk profiling includes information on property valuations with degrees of confidence, housing market liquidity, overall supply and demand factors, and economic drivers such as unemployment and interest rates.
For the last three years, Styles has been advising banks and building societies on how to leverage the benefits available from the Basel II regulatory changes. He was a founder director of Baseline Capital, established to pool data for smaller lenders for Basel II purposes.
Styles will also be working very closely with Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, to deliver new research services to our customers.
Giles Mackay, chairman of Hometrack, commented: “Gary is a very well known industry figure and a frequent commentator on the strategic and economic issues facing the financial services sector. As a recognised authority on house price indices, coupled with Basel II consultancy expertise and comprehensive knowledge on the economics of the mortgage and housing market, Gary brings a wealth of experience and expertise to Hometrack reinforcing our commitment to be the UK’s premier provider of value-added housing market information.”
Styles will be joining Hometrack in early September.
