An industry source told Mortgage Introducer that the firm was looking to enter the market in early 2007.
The source said: “I have been informed that C&G is looking to come to market in the New Year. However, there’s no point coming in to the market with a mediocre product. To take some share of the market C&G will have to offer some flexibility in the type of non-conforming levels they are prepared to deal on. Whether the regulator likes it or not, non-conforming is becoming more important and more brokers make money from it. But the reason for C&G to enter it is it’s an attractive area for all.”
However, Sarah Frost, spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB, C&G’s parent company, refuted the claim: “It is absolutely not the case we are looking at entering the non-conforming market. We have no plans to go into that area. While we have being some small scale amounts of work in the near prime, we are not touching non-conforming.”
Thomas Reeh, chief executive of blackandwhite
.co.uk, commented: “C&G is a bit behind other prime mortgage lenders that are taking a much more liberal view of near prime customers. C&G has excellent service standards and is one of the better prime lenders. If it decided to go play they could get some serious market share. I would be surprised if it didn’t go into the area and am surprised it hasn’t already.”
