Speaking at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries’ annual dinner in London last night Jennifer Robertson, a member of the internal committee on retail issues, consumer policy and payment systems at the European Commission, said the regulation would take years to go through the parliamentary process and member states would not be expected to implement changes for several years after that.
Until now the UK has not been given any indication of when European regulation would affect the UK, but AMI had said in the past it could be as early as the end of this year. That now looks unlikely.
Robertson said: “Parliament and the council will have to formally review it. And then the negotiations will start. Once they reach an agreement member states will then have time to integrate into their own laws and be given sufficient time to adapt. This is not a directive that will enter into practice tomorrow but will most likely only be applied in several years’ time.”
During her speech Robertson added that though she had been heavily involved in the drafting of the European directive on credit agreements relating to residential property, last night was the first time she had been in London for 10 years.
John Malone, executive chairman of PMS, said: “I think that was slightly surprising to say the least.”
