Hodge Lifetime steps back from equity release lending

Hodge Lifetime has announced plans to reduce new equity release lending and restructure its business to concentrate on its pension annuity arm.

The business will continue to write top ups and honour drawdown facilities for existing customers, it said.

The firm said this was a prudential measure take to reflect the more stringent capital and liquidity requirements being applied to financial institutions, arising from the "credit crunch".

In a statement, the firm said: "The reduction in the number of equity release product providers over the last year has provided clear evidence that financial institutions generally are finding that the impact of more stringent capital and liquidity requirements is having a detrimental effect on their capacity to do business, particularly in the equity release sector."
Redundancies are likely, it said, and all affected employees have now entered into consultation.