Bank of China looks for prime mortgage borrowers in UK
It has been reported that whilst UK banks are restricting lending to borrowers from the UK some foreign banks are hoping to increase business by taking on some of the UK consumers who are struggling to get the finance that they need from UK lenders.
One such bank is the Bank of China, which is hoping to cash in on the situation by taking on UK mortgage borrowers who are unable to get the finance that they need from UK banks.
However, according to reports the Bank of China is ‘cherry picking’ the borrowers that it is prepared to take on, and is looking for prime borrowers that have good credit histories but who are still struggling when it comes to getting finance from UK lenders.
With many lenders in the UK said to be allocating only a finite amount of money each day for mortgage lending and then turning down other applications despite good credit histories this could result in a rising number of prime borrowers ending up with foreign banks such as the Bank of China.
The chief retail banking officer at Bank of China U.K. Ltd, Xixu Sun, recently said: “Before the financial crisis you didn’t have a choice, you couldn’t cherry-pick the good customers. Now you have that choice, because there’s a drought in terms of mortgage loans provided by banks.”
Another industry official said: “There’s a gap, particularly for the high-end market. The big banks have been very restrictive on lending.”
The banks products will be made available through thousands of brokers in the UK to give consumers easier access. Sun also said: “We can sense the growing confidence in us since the crisis started. Some clients just closed their accounts in other banks and brought their deposits to us.”
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