Equity withdrawal see biggest drop in 16 years - BoE

According to BoE's estimates, mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW), otherwise known as equity release, reached £15.8bn for the first quarter of 2004, down from 17.4bn in the final quarter of last year. This is the first drop since Q2 2003, when MEW fell with 0.4bn, the BoE says. However, the fall experienced in the beginning of this year is the biggest one since MEW estimates dropped from nearly £6bn to £3.5bn in 1988. IFAonline