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HSBC product withdrawals June 23

ended 08. June 2023

At lunchtime, HSBC announced: “In order to maintain our service levels, we will be removing our current new business Residential and Buy to Let (BTL) products from sale at 5pm today, Thursday 8th June. It subsequently announced: ”Due to significant demand, we will be removing our new business Residential and Buy to Let products from sale with immediate effect. Please note, there will be no products available until Monday 12th June." UK newswire, Newspage, asked brokers for their views.

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
I saw the announcement whilst at lunch and it really underscored the turbulent times we're currently facing in the mortgage market. This is exactly why we're advocating for brokers to endorse the 24-hour pledge. Earlier today, I had the opportunity to speak with the Head of Intermediaries at Coventry Building Society, gaining insight into their dedication to providing a 48-hour notice period. We sincerely hope other lenders will heed our calls and initiate a dialogue with the broker community. I also hope other networks will join New Leaf Distribution and support us.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
I think this is a first for the current waves of rate increases. By giving brokers and clients just a few short hours to secure new deals, inevitably a rush of applications and securing deals occurs, and their systems cannot cope. A more controlled cut-off from all lenders on deals expiring would spread the load and stop this problem from happening. When two or three high street lenders all announce rate increases in the space of an hour this afternoon, with just a few hours to secure deals, I ask what do lenders expect? We only want to secure good-value mortgage deals for clients. The increases are significant, and the savings potential is huge.
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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
HSBC is another lender making changes with little notice, making it nearly impossible for brokers to service clients properly. And then to add insult to injury, they pulled them with immediate effect at 3.50pm. Luckily I was off today and have no cases in the pipeline for HSBC, but I’m praying other lenders don’t follow suit. We need to get an industry minimum notice period sooner rather than later, as the status quo simply doesn't work for consumers.
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Ashley Thomas
Director at Magni Finance
Unsurprisingly, everyone has tried logging into the system following the announcement. I have been in a queue for a long time and, once I got past the initial wait, I have had several errors/issues. It is very unfair on clients and brokers with the short notice being given. We have had the same issues before with HSBC when they gave less than a day's notice.
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Gary Boakes
Director at Verve Financial
This was always coming but once again the notice period of 4 hours and 15 mins is shocking. And then everything was pulled with immediate effect. Luckily, I had a case ready and an hour between appointments to submit smoothly, but with the website struggling to cope with traffic, customers as always will be made to suffer with increased mortgage payments.
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Jamie Lennox
Director at Dimora Mortgages
Yet again, we are here with lenders offering minimal notice and a system that can’t cope with the demand they now face. More needs to be done by lenders to give a minimum of 24 hours to brokers to allow reasonable time for consumers to consider their options. Shorter notice periods will lead to an influx of poorly packaged cases that will result in more hours being lost by underwriters having to assess the case multiple times while they wait for documents to come in. With these short windows to submit, there is a real risk that more fraudulent cases slip through the net as brokers scramble to get apps submitted without completing proper due diligence.
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Paul Neal
Mortgages & Equity Release Advisor at First Choice Financial Services
Yet again we find ourselves with another lender dropping out of the market until they release new products. This time with no warning.
How are we supposed to give our clients best value when a lender pulls rates with zero notice? This just highlights the importance of a minimum withdrawal period.