With continued volatility in our market and money market rates increasing,

Igroup have had to review their pricing. The new rates and criteria were launched on Tuesday 3rd June 2008.

Additional Criteria Update

Valuations Criteria
Revised criteria on Minimum Property Value:

• Non Standard Construction Property Types: £100,000
• Standard Construction Houses, Private Flats and Maisonettes: £80,000 with a maximum 80% LTV

Self-Cert Applications
Being a prudent and responsible lender they will review applications to ensure that there is a reasonable alignment between occupation and income declared. They will review this where income is less than £60,000 for NRM to GEM 1 and less than £40,000 for GEM 2 to GEM 7.

Debt Management Plans
Where an applicant is in or is about to enter into a debt management arrangement the DTIR must be calculated using the contractual monthly payment with each creditor and not the reduced debt management arrangement.

Mortgage / Rental History – Policy reminder
Our current policy requires 12 months proof of payments for all mortgage / rental agreements involving any of the applicants.

Child and Working Family Tax Credits
As of the 20 June 2008 we will require applicants that are using Child or Working Family Tax Credits within their income calculation to confirm that they will be in receipt of this benefit for a further 3 years from date of application.

The igroup Application form is being amended to include this declaration and a further communication will be issued during June to advise of its publication date.

Pipeline

All applications on the 1708 range that have not yet been received by igroup (irrespective of LTV) must have had a DIP via IDOL by 5.30pm on Monday 2nd June 2008.

After this time the plans were no longer available.

The fully packaged submission deadline for these cases is Tuesday 10th June 08 

Cases where a material change is required to the DIP and mortgage offers expiring after 20th June 2008 will be subject to re-assessment against the revised criteria.

If you have any questions on the above please contact your local Regional SMS Office.

With continued volatility in the market and money market rates increasing,

First National reviewed their pricing. The new rates were launched on

Tuesday 27th May 08 across the First National core range,

including splitting the reversionary rates between Fixed and Discount Products.

Product Guide released on Tuesday 27th May 08

Additional Criteria Changes

Valuations

Harbour Homeloans Core and BTL Ranges (HHN/HHL/BTL) Minimum valuations for all properties is now £100,000 Apart from standard construction houses, private flats and maisonettes with a maximum LTV of 80% can be considered where the minimum property valuation is £80,000.

All BTL properties have a minimum valuation of £100,000 Mortgage and Rental History - Core Range (HHN/HHL) For all products (including High) we require proof of the last 12 months mortgage/rental payments for all mortgages including any BTL mortgages held by the applicant(s).

This will also include all secured loans held where the balance is in excess of £25,000  or where the balance is below £25,001 and not being consolidated into the FN loan.

Self certified Applications

Harbour’s Core Range (HHN/HHL) Being a prudent and responsible lender we will review applications to ensure that there is a reasonable alignment between occupation and income declared. We will review this where income is less than £60,000 for FTB, FTB+, NP+, NP and Ultralight and less than £40,000 for Light, Light2Medium, Medium and High.

Deadline Dates

The fully packaged submission deadline for Core 1408 cases is Wednesday 11th June 08, after this the new 2208 rates will apply

No faxed or emailed submissions will be accepted. Please note as a minimum the packaged cases must contain the following in order to be processed:

• Fully signed and completed application form
• Decision in Principle (DIP) (Core range only)
• Credit Search
• Proof of mortgage payment
• Valuation report Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement (BTL Range only)

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your local Regional SMS Office.