Online and telephone lender First Direct, a division of HSBC – one of Europe’s largest banks – has temporarily withdrawn its mortgages from the UK market.
The move comes after the lender received unprecedented applications for its home loans following the withdrawal of many products from the market as well as the move by several lenders to lift their mortgage rates.
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Chris Pilling, First Direct chief executive, said applications were running at five times normal volumes.
“Rather than increase interest rates dramatically to discourage new applications, we’ve decided to withdraw temporarily from offering mortgages to non customers until we’ve cleared the backlog,” he said.
Published: 03-04-08