Mortgage prisoner firms given extra three months to contact customers

By Neasa MacErlean

The FCA is continuing its campaign to help ‘mortgage prisoners’ by giving the lenders involved (including firms administering books on behalf of others) an extra three months to contact consumers who could be eligible to switch to another deal. This means the previous deadline of 1 September has been pushed back to 1 December 2020. The regulator had been working with the industry before the pandemic to find ways to help this group of mortgage borrowers. Last October the Financial Conduct Authority removed some barriers that had prevented these borrowers from taking up a better loan offer — and the next step was a communication campaign to alert these customers.