Hodge pulls back on equity release
Share
Hodge Lifetime is winding down new equity-release lending to focus on growing its annuity business.
The firm will continue to write top-ups and honour drawdown facilities for existing customers but says redundancies are likely in the equity-release arm of the business.
Hodge says it has taken the decision as a “prudent measure” due to the more stringent capital and liquidity requirements being applied to financial institutions since the credit crunch.
Hodge says it has reviewed its staffing resources and a number of redundancies may be required. All employees affected have entered into consultation with the firm, which says it wants to redeploy its resources where possible.
Just Retirement, Aviva and LV= are the major players still competing in the sector.
Stonehaven suspended its equity-release lending in March this year. Prudential pulled out of the market in November 2009, a move and was followed by Northern Rock, Saffron Building Society, Coventry Building Society and Retirement Plus. In Retirement Services went into administration early last year.
Lenders relying on wholesale funding without an annuity book have been worst hit.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing
