Brokers who recommend home equity release schemes are now refusing to refer business to taxpayer-backed banks that don’t offer extra safeguards to consumers.
Both Scottish Widows and NatWest – whose parent banks, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), have received multi-billion pound capital injections from the Treasury – have been removed from “approved” lists of some of the biggest brokers of Lifetime Mortgages. The concern is over these banks’ refusal to sign up to an industry code of practice that sets higher consumer protection standards than those required by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
