According to reports in the mortgage news, Nationwide have further added to credit crunch woes by tightening its lending criteria still further for all new customers.
Nationwide are one of the largest building society lenders in the UK, but now borrowers looking for a mortgage loan will need to double their minimum deposit. To be considered for the majority of Nationwide loans, borrowers must now put down a 10 per cent deposit.
The move may anger the government, who are trying to ease credit crunch tensions. Nationwide have also slashed their maximum loan amount for all new customers, from £1m to £500,000.
A spokeswoman for Nationwide, Zoe Stevens, reportedly commented: "The mortgage market will not transform overnight and we need to be able to manage our business in a prudent way while the SLS takes effect. These changes will allow us to maintain control of the volume of business the Society is attracting, while enabling us to continue offering our full range of mortgages to our existing members in a controlled way."
