Company dives into lending pool

Like other industries whose fortunes are yoked to the health of the ailing housing market, swimming pool construction has suffered dramatic declines in the past two years. The number of pools built nationwide this year will amount to about half the production of 2005.

Pool Corp. of Covington has endured the decline without significant erosion to its bottom line because it derives much of its revenue from maintenance and repair. But the swimming pool supply distributor has also tried to sustain the construction side of its business by starting an in-house brokerage, Pool Corp. Financial Mortgage, to connect potential pool buyers with loans at a time when many banks are wary of extending credit for such projects.

Pool's executives blame the fall-off in new construction largely on the drought in the credit markets. During the real estate boom, consumers often borrowed against the rising value of their homes to finance major improvements like new swimming pools. Pool's chief executive told investors in New York last month that home equity loans all but vanished as values caved and banks started to view housing as fool's gold.

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High street credit charges soar

Worried lenders have hiked rates for hard-up consumers by as much as 9% in the past four weeks, threatening to speed up the exodus of shoppers from the high street.

Research from comparison website uSwitch.com revealed that eight providers have increased the cost of unsecured personal loans by up to 9%, while the number of loans available has dropped to 52 from 56.

Lloyds unit Black Horse upped rates for loans of 1,000-2,999 by 9% to 36.9% APR and to 25.9% APR for loans of 5,000-7,499. Bank of Ireland, Bradford & Bingley, Lloyds TSB, Marks and Spencer, Barclaycard, Asda and Sainsbury's Finance have also upped their rates.

"As the news agenda overflows with the global financial meltdown, a plethora of loan rate increases have been implemented in the past four weeks, said Louise Bond, Personal Finance manager at uSwitch.com.

Lenders have increased unsecured personal loans by as much as 9% APR making borrowing even more costly for consumers.

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Link Loans joins Brilliant’s panel

Secured loan products will now be available with rates which are fixed for the term of the loan starting from 12.4%, and with LTVs up to 80%.

John Maclean, Managing Director of Link Lending, said: “We are delighted to offer brokers access to Link Loans via Exclusive Connections member firms. While the supply of funds remains limited in the current marketplace, we are very optimistic about the opportunities that the secured loan market represents. We are confident that our business partnership with Exclusive Connections will continue to deliver mutual benefits along by making our attractive secured loans available to a wider range of brokers.”

Matthew Arena, Managing Director of Brilliant Loans, added “At Brilliant Loans we constantly strive to make sure that we are offering the best of what the market can offer and we are pleased to welcome Link Lending to our lending panel. They offer an exciting mix of products and their commitment to the needs of the intermediary market confirmed to us that the new relationship will be a valuable addition."

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Horizon Bancorp Announces Increase in Third Quarter Provision for Loan Losses

Horizon Bancorp announced that it has taken a provision for loan losses of $3.137 million for the third quarter of 2008. This compares to a provision of $1.490 million for the second quarter of 2008. This increase is primarily due to the deterioration of three commercial loans in Horizon's loan portfolio. Horizon's commercial loan portfolio totaled approximately $305 million as of September 30, 2008.

Horizon assesses the adequacy of its Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses ("ALLL") by reviewing the performance of all of its loan portfolios. As a result of the current assessment, we determined that there has been recent deterioration in the commercial and indirect loan portfolios.

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