In what is understood to be a unique agreement, the IFS School of Finance has agreed to train and provide accreditation for all underwriting staff at Abbey National.
All underwriting staff will have a choice of two levels of training, Certificate or Diploma. The Certificate level course will be achieved in conjunction with the Abbey National certificate in underwriting and provide a customer services professional level qualification. The Diploma is more suited to those aiming for more senior roles and will involve the Applied Diploma in Corporate Banking.
These developments are sure to make the whole operation better in the future, leading to an improved experience for anyone buying an Abbey National mortgage or any form of insurance for which underwriting is needed.
A study carried out by the Lloyds TSB mortgage department has found that the days of the removal man may be numbered as people take a do it themselves approach.
The bank surveyed their mortgage customers and found that over half of them were planning to move into their new home under their own steam, without employing professionals to move their goods. Lloyds TSB also found that the estate agent was being cut out of 10 percent of home sales as vendors sold privately.
A Lloyds TSB mortgage department advisor commenting on the results suggested that the economic climate could be driving these changes. The average cost of employing a professional removal company is over GBP7,000 so being able to save a lot of that makes good sense.
The monthly review of house prices provided by the Nationwide Building Society has shown another fall in house prices for June, though much less than it was in May.
House prices in June fell by less than one percent, compared with a drop of 2.5 percent in May. Although this is still a decrease in property prices it is at a much steadier rate which is an easier situation to deal with than the sharp drops seen before. The Nationwide Building Society chief economist noted that although the average house costs about GBP11,500 less than it did this time last year, compared with two years ago it is still 4 percent higher, and 9 percent higher when looking at a three year gap.
As the market stands then it is still in quite healthy shape for most homeowners who bought a couple of years ago or more and even then, as the Nationwide Building Society would point out, property is still an excellent investment over the longer term.
