by Gary Webber
12. January 2010 15:12
CEO reveals off-the-cuff statistic at meeting of Treasury select committee
RBS Group — the banking conglomerate that owns mortgage lenders Natwest, Royal Bank Of Scotland, Ulsterbank, First Active and Coutts & Co — claimed that it had stepped "into the breach" of UK mortgage lending since many other lenders had disappeared from the market.
Its chief executive Stephen Hester, speaking before a panel of MPs, described the bank as something of a safe haven for beleagured borrowers:
"[I]f you are someone in search of a mortgage, nine out of ten times we will sell this to you […] I think that is an appropriate statistic."
If that's really true, borrowers with 75 per cent loan to value ought to put this claim to the test and besiege RBS for one of their 3.75%, £299 fee, variable tracker mortgages with no tie-in period (i.e. you can be off again when rates do the inevitable). Feel free to report back any experiences in the comments!