On Wednesday, Mark Hoban, the Treasury Minister announced that he intends to tighten the rules governing the mortgage market in Britain in order to give consumers greater protection.
The FSA will be given regulatory powers over second loans on properties so that it is policing the whole residential mortgage market. These tighter rules will protect house buyers in the event of a lenders’ mortgage book being sold to an unregulated provider.
The government intends to write the new changes into law later this year although the FSA will start to implement the changes straight away, the Treasury said.
Hoban also announced plans to extend the rules protecting buyers in sale-and-rent-back programs to cover the whole mortgage market. The sale-and-rent-back scheme lets people selling their property remain in it on a shorthold tenancy, instead of moving home.
Meanwhile, Colin Walsh, the MD of Lloyds Banking Group Mortgages is the new chairman of the CML. He is keen for the CML to work alongside the regulators and the coalition to ensure the right regulation is embedded.
He pointed out that mortgage lending companies have been helping house buyers for over 150 years. The mortgage market has a direct impact on people’s lives and he is determined to make sure the industry delivers the best, whatever the economic conditions may be.
Walsh said that one of his key objectives in his new role will be to harness the wide variety of expertise among all types of mortgage lender regardless of size.
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