Monitoring, not regulation

The announcement that mortgage lenders are to be monitored by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has not come up to consumer expectations. Following a period of consultation, economic secretary to the Treasury Melanie Johnson, has put forward a package of ‘protection from unfair loans’ for the UK’s 11mn home buyers with mortgages, aiming to improve the standards of 43,000 mortgage advisers operating in the £490bn mortgage sector. This will not be fully operative until some time in 2001.