Last week – my final week as editor of Mortgage Solutions – was possibly one of the busiest since the beginning of the year. There was much editorial gold for personal finance journalists, but perhaps little joy for the market as a whole.

There has been yet another casualty of the current crisis, in the form of the closure of Advantage. Many commentators sagely suggested that the writing was on the wall for a long time for the Morgan Stanley specialist lender. That is easy to say if you have managed to grapple onto your lifebelt and not drown.

Meanwhile, mortgage fraud has stormed back onto the agenda, and it appears that this can no longer be an isolated issue, confined to the odd press release from the regulator or the City of London Police.

Following a conference hosted by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, it has been announced there will be an overhaul of the current fraud reporting system, to make sure there is a more coherent mode of prevention and intervention.

Mortgage fraud has been described as a significant, growing and highly-organised crime, with cartels targeting the industry in ever more sophisticated ways. So what does this mean for the regular adviser, if there is a small indication that fraud is being committed? Overly ­rigorous questioning of potential clients could be seen as intrusive and rude. Failing to act on that great indicator, gut instinct, could be self-destructive.

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Neither the regulator nor the police wants brokers to turn into amateur sleuths, but there certainly is an obligation to help nip any problem in the bud. The FSA has some guidelines but there is still much confusion of where the broker’s role comes into fraud detection. There needs to be more clarification as mortgage advisers are finding it tough enough to keep up with their current regulatory obligations, never mind helping to catch the bad guys, be it a client or a colleague.

Ultimately, the mortgage market has suffered from enough bad news of late. The one thing that is controllable is quality, and that needs to be commanded by grass roots brokers who should all want to maintain and promote themselves and the good work of which they are capable. n