Matt Surridge has been appointed as the new director at Linear Financial Solutions. The appointment follows the retirement of Donald Fraser, who stood down from the firm yesterday. Surridge joins from MPowered Mortgages, bringing over two decades of industry knowledge to the role. During his career, he has also served in roles at firms including Mortgage Brain, Countrywide and Lloyds Banking Group. Surridge will also fulfil an interim sales director role for LSL Financial Services.

Santander has announced changes to its mortgage and base rate savings products, in line with the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to cut the Bank of England’s base rate to 4.50%. On all existing Santander tracker mortgage products linked to the base rate, rates will be reduced by 0.25% from 3 March. This includes the Santander follow-on rate, which will decrease from 8% to 7.75%. The Santander standard variable rate will also decrease by the same amount to 6.75%. On the bank’s saving products that are linked to the base rate, product rates will reduce by 0.25%.

United Trust Bank (UTB) has increased the maximum LTV on its residential mortgage product range to 95%. The move is the latest in a series of product and criteria enhancements designed to help mortgage brokers write more business and place more cases for customers falling outside of mainstream lender appetite. The new maximum 95% LTV is available across UTB’s residential mortgage range and is suitable for purchase, remortgage and first-time buyer applications. On the lender’s 95% LTV prime plus plans, rates start from 7.29% and 7.04% at two- and five-year fixes respectively, with the prime plans start from 7.89% and 7.64% on the same fixes respectively.

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