Foundation Home Loans withdraws all B2L and residential products

This morning I woke up to an email giving me four hours' notice that a lender was withdrawing BTL products. I then get another lender with the same message and timescale. This follows a flurry of emails yesterday of interest rate changes and lenders quoting market volatility. The increase in rates isn't an issue, what is a massive problem to both brokers and landlords is the lack of notice. As a specialist broker in the BTL market, I've been anticipating rate increases over the past week and if I can work it out, why can't lenders give brokers sufficient notice It creates stress for a client rushing to get information to process the application and can cause havoc to a broker's workload by readjusting their priorities to ensure rates are secured for their landlord clients. Some lenders allow the interest rate to be secured if the decision in principle is issued by a certain time. This gives one or two days to submit the rest of the information. More should offer this.

Foundation and other lenders withdrawing all of their mortgages quoting "capital market volatility" on Thursday is something that the FCA needs to deal with. This is the same situation that occurred last October when a large number of lenders literally left the market, causing panic among consumers. Last year they had the excuse of the "went-a-bit-far" mini-Budget. I'd be interested to hear how they think that the current state of play really justifies this activity. The regulator should have criteria among its enforcement processes that deal with regulated entities working towards creating market chaos. At times like this, we need grown-up thinking from lending institutions not have them running for the hills.

Swap rates have jumped and lenders have been quicker than Usain Bolt out of the starting block, pulling their product range or announcing rate increases. Germany has now entered into a recession. This will cause further panic and uncertainty in the markets. The Bank of England will be watching the events closely and a further rate increase looks likely when they next meet. This is not good news for borrowers who are coming to the end of their fixed deals.

The swift and decisive removal of products instills a profound sense of urgency, igniting a cascade of reactions marked by panic. This phenomenon engenders an atmosphere of fear and scarcity that permeates the wider economic landscape, prompting individuals to question the robustness of these institutions and the delicate balance upon which they stand.

The tidal wave is certainly building and it won't be long until we are awash with most lenders either increasing rates, reducing options available or temporarily pausing lending off the back of the economic outlook following inflation not falling as sharply as many forecasted. It's certainly starting to feel eerily similar to what followed post the mini-Budget last year.

This is incredibly frustrating and, as we saw back in October, this simply doesn't treat customers fairly as it is impossible to process a case compliantly in this kind of timescale. There are lots of lenders increasing rates with very little notice and it is stressful for us as brokers and clients themselves who have to make rush decisions or lose out on the rates.