Platform withdraws UK’s last self-cert mortgage

Mortgage lender, Platform, has withdrawn from the self-certification market.

The move follows last month’s publication of the Financial Services Authority’s draft of its Mortgage Market Review, which proposes “major reforms” for UK lenders.

Key features include imposing affordability tests for all mortgages and making lenders ultimately responsible for assessing a consumer’s ability to pay.

Under the proposals, self-cert mortgages, where a borrower declares his or her income without formal proof of earnings, will be banned, together with the sale of loans which contain certain “toxic combinations” of characteristics that put borrowers at risk.

Platform was the sole remaining self-cert home loan provider in the UK market but says that it intends to develop a new loan for the self-employed, who may not always be able to provide the normal documentation required.

The lender forms part of Britannia Building Society, which merged with Co-operative Financial Services earlier this year.

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