In our market we are talking a lot about forbearance, which is effectively an agreement to exercise both restraint and tolerance when it comes to the financial situation in which borrowers may find themselves.

That’s never been as important as it is now, with many businesses effectively closed.

Individuals, who have done nothing wrong, find themselves in a hideous situation and it’s absolutely right that we as a sector are exercising the very highest levels of restraint and tolerance in relation to their ability to meet mortgage payments in the short term.

And that level of forbearance, in my view, needs to be adopted regarding the situation that currently exists for many lenders and providers – again, through no fault of their own.

For the most part, both advisers affected by lender changes, and the press that report on these things, are exercising restraint, but in some cases we’re seeing the individual ‘hit’ being deemed more important than the bigger picture. Admittedly, it is a very small number of ‘haters’, but it can have a big impact.

In that context, perhaps those who feel the need to ‘go to town’ via social media on a lender’s decision to change criteria, cut LTVs or indeed suspend new applications altogether may actually consider the reasoning behind this.

There is no lender at this time that would want to do any of the above unless they were absolutely compelled to.

We enact change out of want or need; lenders are doing this out of need and, without such action, I suspect many would simply have to shut their doors for good.

It’s that serious. If your choice was between progressing a case already in the pipeline, when the situation had changed so drastically, or trying to ensure the survival of your business, what would you do?

So, while we may all be looking to lenders to adopt a level of forbearance towards borrowers, so must we adopt that same level of understanding regarding the lending decisions currently being made.

Pad Bamford is business development director at AmTrust Mortgage & Credit