He said: “Whilst good progress has been made on some of the detail of the specialist sourcebook for building societies, we still have concerns that, overall, the sourcebook may tend to disadvantage building societies by imposing a tougher and more prescriptive regime on them than banks or other lenders will be subject to; specifically with mortgage lending requirements.
“We have worked with the FSA during the consultation process on the technical details of the sourcebook and we welcome the significant improvements that move it away from being the rigid and stifling framework we feared in the consultation draft.
"However, we remain convinced that conclusions on the lending elements of the sourcebook are premature and do not take account of the detailed research and analysis that was undertaken for the Mortgage Market Review.
“We also believe the FSA should commit to a full post-implementation review of the sourcebook within 12-18 months of it coming into force.
"Such a review can address any harmonisation needed between the sourcebook and the final policy that emerges at the end of the mortgage market review process.”
