Landbay, has introduced a suite of two-year fixed rate like-for-like remortgage products with a lower interest cover ratio (ICR) stress test. The specialist buy-to-let (BTL) lender revealed that landlords remortgaging with no change to their borrowing requirements will be stress tested at pay rate plus 1% instead of the standard calculation of pay rate plus 2%, a move the lender believes will help with affordability challenges. The reduced ICR stress test also applies to Landbay’s reduced interest rate, loyalty remortgages, introduced recently for like-for-like existing Landbay borrowers.

Seccl, the Octopus-owned embedded investment platform, is supporting the launch of a new investment range for investment service, Wealth Club. Founded in 2016 by former Hargreaves Lansdown director and shareholder, Alex Davies, Wealth Club has over 50,000 members and 11,000 active investors, who have collectively invested more than £1.1bn through the service. Now Wealth Club is building on its established success in the alternative investment space with a new investment offering, beginning with the launch of its Quality Shares Portfolio. This will allow Wealth Club members to invest in a small number of 15 to 20 “high conviction” companies, chosen for their resilience, financial strength and pricing power – either through their stocks and shares ISA or via a general investment account.

Vida Homeloans has reduced the rate of its BTL limited edition product. The specialist lender’s two-year product is available on Vida Tier 48 at an initial rate of 5.04%, up to 75% loan-to-value (LTV). It has also changed the product fee to a fixed fee of £4,995, which will help larger loan borrowers. All Vida products are backed by a service pledge, which allows brokers to request a refund of the £180 application admin fee if they feel they have received “anything but excellent service”.

Kuflink’s peer to peer (P2P) division, working in close cooperation with its short-term bridging side, has announced it is aiming to boost its loan book to between £350m and £500m within the next two years. The announcement follows several promotions in its management team as well as taking on new hires for its investor relations team. Recent internal promotions at Kuflink include Paul Auger becoming chief operations officer (COO) after a year as head of products. Gary Prince, formerly head of financial control has become chief financial officer (CFO) and Laura Hetherington is now chief of staff and operations. Hiran Patel has also been named chief risk officer and will manage the entire risk team.

The Cambridge Building Society has launched a ‘100-day notice’ ISA account and increased the rate on its ‘your saver’ account. The new 100-day notice ISA account offers tax free saving at a rate of 3.70%, and the flexibility for customers to access their savings without locking their funds into long-term fixed rate savings accounts. The society has also announced a rate increase on its easy access your saver account from 3.50% to 3.75%, in response to the latest Bank of England base rate review.

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