Too good to be true?

Fatherhood

My partner and I are in talks to arrange a mortgage through an IFA with Accord Mortgages Ltd. A trusted and respected elder in one of our families has questioned whether or not Accord are (simply) a suitable lender.

The FSA says Accord does not have permission to hold client money. However, they are permitted to lend mortgages.
Accord say they are a subsidiary of Yorkshire BS, but neither website confirms that Accord is actually a part of Yorkshire BS Brand of financial institutions.
Finally, some online terms and conditions from Accord (I guess they will show us the latest ones at point of contract being entered into) states that they may transfer interest in mortgages away from Yorkshire BS to another company unrelated to Yorkshire or any other BS.

So, might our mortgage be bundled-up and sold to ssomeone who is not covered by UK legal compensation schemes?

We are confused, but as someone who has dependents I cannot enter into a mortgage (FTB) agreement without knowing the family finances are secure.

Any comments greatly appreciated.

ACG

Accord are part of YBS.

I personally think you are looking into it far too much. A lot of companies may end up selling on your mortgage to another company. It frees up more money for them to then sell more mortgages. You tend to only tie into a mortgag for 2, 3 or 5 years anyway. Its unlikely to get sold straigh away, even when/if it does it would take a few months to go through and even then the rates may stay the same. I think they only tend to get sold after they come out of whatever deal your in.

What im bsically saying is that there are a lot of ifs and buts before it happens.

Thrugelmir

All mortgage lenders in the UK are regulated by the FSA.

Whether they are a suitable lender or not may be more of an ethical matter ( how they conduct business) as opposed to contractual terms (industry regulated).

GMS

Why do Accord need to hold your money? You are borrowing from them. As they are not a deposit taking institution i.e a bank then there is no need for permission to hold money.

Any fees payable will be non refundable meaning there would never be a situation when they would be obliged tro return funds to you hence no need for the permissions to hold client money.

As far as I am aware the permission is only required when there is a possibility of the money being returned to the client. If it is not refundable or able to be requested for return then any monies paid are no longer the clients.

As for selling the mortgage on this is called securitisation and happens with many lenders.

Ultimately they are regulated by the FSA and you would have their money, not the pther way round.