Posts Tagged ‘Standard Bank’
Standard Bank Helps SA Home Loans Take Securitisation Into New Territories
June 14, 2005
South African Home Loans* (SAHL) will soon be launching another exciting innovation for the South Africa securitisation market: the first listed residential mortgage warehousing conduit, the Thekwini Conduit, arranged by Standard Bank.
SAHL was the first South African mortgage originator to tap the public residential mortgage backed securitisation market when it launched Thekwini 1 in November 2001. Subsequently, SAHL has completed four further successful issues, constantly setting new market benchmarks in terms of both pricing and volumes.
The Thekwini Conduit, which has been sized at R15 billion and has been rated by Fitch Ratings, will provide SAHL with access to short-term money market funds, enabling it to diversify its warehousing funding and benefit from more competitive funding rates. SAHL will, however, continue with its long-term Thekwini programmes in parallel to the Thekwini Conduit, expecting to launch Thekwini 6 in the last quarter of this year.
“With the establishment of the Thekwini Conduit, SAHL will secure yet another source of sustainable funding to support the continuing growth we are experiencing in our home loan book. Furthermore, it provides us with an opportunity to respond to investor demand that we’ve identified in the short-term market. We have strong relationships with our investors and pride ourselves as being at the front-runner in bringing ground-breaking products to the market,” says Kevin Penwarden, SAHL’s Chief Executive Officer.
The Thekwini Conduit provides money market funds with an exciting new investment, backed by a diversified asset pool. AJ Rothman, Director of Securitisation at Standard Bank, the arrangers of the Thekwini Conduit said: “This transaction brings a number of new technologies to the South African securitisation market and demonstrates again just how sophisticated this sector of the South African capital market has become. We are unaware of this technology being utilised in any other country other than the United States.”
Some of the new features that the Thekwini Conduit introduces to the market are: a high degree of flexibility as the Thekwini Conduit is able to issue both long and short-term notes giving investors the opportunity to invest in notes rated F1+(zaf), F1(zaf), F2(zaf), A(zaf) or BBB(zaf). Further, the notes may be listed and/or unlisted depending on investor requirements. Innovatively, the Thekwini Conduit will also be the first to issue liquidity notes. This enables SAHL to further reduce its reliance on bank facilities.
SAHL intends issuing the first tranche of notes from the programme at the end of June 2005 through Standard Bank’s money market desk.
* Standard Bank is a shareholder in SA Home Loans.
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Standard Bank ranked No.1 in sub-Saharan Africa
July 11, 2005
Standard Bank has been ranked No. 1 in sub-Saharan Africa in The Banker Top 1 000 World Banks 2005, an annual ranking of the world’s commercial banks.
Standard Bank is now ranked No. 108 in the world, up from 116 in 2004.
The rankings are based on Tier One capital as defined by Basel’s Bank for International Settlements. The definition is more strict than total stockholders’ equity and covers only the core of the bank’s strength; the shareholders’ equity available to cover actual or potential losses.
The object of the survey is to show the banks’ soundness in relation to the Basel requirement of minimum Tier 1 capital on risk-weighted assets of 4% and a minimum ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets of 8%.
The Banker (www.thebanker.com) is the global monthly banking magazine of the Financial Times Group and was first published in 1926.
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Is it worth it to fix your home loan for 20 years?
August 15, 2005
With SA Homeloans Varifix, you now have to option to fix your home loan for a period of 20 years. There are some important things to keep in mind before signing up for such a long term.
The current Varifix rate is set at about 12%, whereas SA Homeloans and most of the larger banks currently offer between 8.5% and 9.1% on variable loans. This means that if you do fix your rate, interest rates must increase by at least 3% before you will start to break even.
Taking the current economic situation into account, chances of interest rate climbing so much in the near future are slim, but nobody can predict what will happen in 10 or 20 years’ time. Keep in mind that inflation is relatively stable right now, so there is no immediate need to increase the current interest rate.
Keep in mind that if you were to simply increase your monthly repayment to the amount you will have to pay for the new Varifix product, you would have to pay almost R600.00 extra per month on a R300 000.00 bond. That would also mean that you could pay off your bond in only 12 years instead of 20. This would save you about 40% in interest charges during the 12 years (just above R140 000.00 on a R300 000.00 bond).
If you are the type of person who really prefers security, then this might be a great option. In the end, it is still up to you to decide what is best for you and what you are comfortable with.
To read more about Varifix, visit SA Homeloans at www.sahomeloans.co.za
If you would like to apply for a much lower variable interest rate, try SecuBond Mortgage Originators who will find you the best rate at the four leading banks.
Standard Bank: Home Loan Options for Each and Every One
Put up your feet. Lay back. Relax. Be together. Live yourself. Sleep. Eat. Party. Home is where the heart and no matter what you want your house to be, at different stages of life you have different needs and expectations of life. And the place you call home. No two people are the same. In the time we live in, it is sometimes scary to think you have to own your own place. That is why Standard Bank thought it good to develop different home loan options – for people with unique desires and financial assets.
Standard Bank not only provide a number of home loan choices, it simplified the process making it easier for you to understand your needs and find exactly what you are looking for. With nine options to choose from and several guidelines, finding the perfect place never was easier.
You know the feeling when you walk into a clothing store and you can imagine yourself and that fabulous pair of jeans? You don’t even have to try it on, you just know it will fit like a glove? It is the same with shopping around for a house. The moment you put your foot through the door you can already smell the chocolate brownies you and the children will bake in the kitchen. Or you can picture working on your son’s bicycle in the garage. Magic. But all that is a waste if you can’t sign the deal there and then. Imagine losing your dream house for taking time to get your home loan approved? Standard Bank thought about that too and decided that such disappointment is not worth it. With the Pledge option, you can get a home loan approved even before you start the quest of house hunting. Pledge confirms your ability to buy property and is valid for six months since date of issue. This conditionary option is available to anyone that wants to buy a new house and is sure his or her home loan will be approved.
There is nothing scarier – or more exciting – than buying your first house. However, chances are that you are still short on cash and upfront costs and deposits may be a problem for you. Again, Standard Bank home loans has an option available for you. Any first-time buyer that earns more than R6000 per month can apply for this option, which has five different sub-options to fit your exact needs. The option offers a loan to the value of 108% of the assessed value of your property.
DreamStart offers low income-earners access to a home loan. If you want to obtain your first or second house and earn between R1500 and R6000, this option will suit your needs. Your circumstances play a vital role in the loan. Set up an appointment with a consultant at your nearest branch to find out how you can be rewarded with better interest rates and or insurance coverage.
Interest rates are always a headache, but can become even more so if you have a home loan. Higher interest rates means less money to spend on your home. If you are afraid of this, the SecuraRate-option can protect you against this. You can choose between the fixed rate and the capped rate options. The first option freezes your interest rate for a certain extent of time (12, 14 or 18 months). The latter caps your interest rate at a maximum rate for a certain extent of time.
Every once in a while one needs a holiday to break with old habits and generate new ones. While paying off your house, some unforeseen circumstances can sometimes put you in a financial dilemma. Standard Bank developed a payment holiday that allows you to take a break for three months from repaying your loan. The instalments you had to pay over that period now has to be repaid over the remaining time of the repayment-term.
There are other ways of paying off your home loan simply than working overtime like a madman. Any low-income earner who will have difficulty getting a home loan must consider the Fully Guaranteed Lending option where you repay your loan via a retirement fund instead of a mortgage bond. Employers can also use this option to extent their benefits to employees.
When buying a residential property that you want to use as a business, the Business Mortgage option is for you. This offers you a loan of up to 80% of the property’s assessed value, with a period of repayment for up to twenty years.
It is a good idea to repay your home loan as soon as possible and sometimes you even have spare funds to pay towards it, but can’t help thinking that you may need that money again at a later stage. AccessBond gives you the freedom to pay money towards your home loan and withdraw it again in the future. Again there is two options available: With AccessBond limit you can withdraw money up unto the original amount you borrowed and with the AccessBond linking facility you have an unlimited number of deposits into your home loan account with immediate access to funds transferred electronically.
You can also have access to funds that have already been paid on your home loan with the Re-advance option – as long as you have funds available in your home loan account.
A further advance option is a second bond on your property, ideal when you have renovations or alterations on your house. This second bond is registered over your property.
