The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
Today the Government have announced a package of measures intended to enhance consumer protection in the mortgage market. These measures will:
transfer the regulation of new and existing second-charge residential mortgages from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Services Authority (FSA);
ensure consumer protections are maintained when a mortgage book is sold by a mortgage lender to an unregulated firm; and
extend the current regulation of the sale and rent back market to all providers.
An additional measure relating to a devolved matter—providing an exemption from FSA regulation for registered housing associations in Northern Ireland—is also included in the package.
This package is part of the Government’s wider programme to reform financial regulation, to improve consumer protection and strengthen financial stability. It will simplify the mortgage regulation landscape by making the FSA responsible for all residential mortgages.
The statutory instruments will be published later in 2011. In advance of this, the Government expect the FSA to begin work immediately to implement these measures.