Following on from the July 2005 White Paper on mortgage market integration between EU member states, the FSA has called on the European Commission to tackle the issues of mortgage funding, common valuation standards and access to credit data, if it was to achieve a more integrated market.
Speaking at the European Mortgage Federation conference, John Tiner, chief executive at the FSA, admitted a move to provide greater transparency between markets had the possibility of disrupting the role of the consumer. He said: “Harmonising consumer protection across member states should not be a focus of the Commission’s work. Changes to consumer protection regimes risks imposing significant costs, which will be reflected in the price all consumers pay.”
He added that changes to consumer protection could also ‘distort or undermine well-established national consumer protection measures’.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) in its own review of EU integration of the market concluded that there should be a greater model of integrated mortgage funding, with measures set to liberalise national markets.
A spokesperson at the CML, said: “We believe the Commission has failed to substantiate a business case for measures to promote integration of the EU mortgage market.”
