Mortgage News
Flushed away
The industry is certainly suffering, says Ben Marquand, but it needs to focus on policing itself or risk compounding its misery
With the market now biting everyone who is involved with it, and house prices falling in some areas – I include homeowners in this – the mortgage industry is less being tortured by the steady drip drip of bad news than being flushed away in a torrent of negativity. Less a death by a thousand cuts than being hacked up by the hacks, if you will.
We at Mortgage Solutions always strive to reflect what is happening in the market, without prejudice or spin, but at the moment there is a lot of what could be perceived as downbeat news – firms losing staff, lenders pulling and re-pricing products, slashing their packager and distributor panels and even going out of business.
However, we are at pains to find positive news stories, too as it does not do any good to revel in pessimism.
People believe what they read and after a while the negative outlook builds to such a level that people believe the situation is far worse than it is. But right now the industry needs to police itself if it is not to compound its misery.
After all, the report out last week [see page 3] revealed a worrying lack of authority from the FSA in its dealings with Northern Rock in the run up to its problems, indicating it is perhaps not as all-knowing as it would like to portray.
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When we hear that the City of London Police is staffing up to take on an expected rise in mortgage fraud, and comments from some senior industry figures claiming fraud is endemic in certain sectors, it becomes clear that we as an industry need to take stock and stamp out wrongdoing wherever it is found.
Even if the police do not find the perpetrators, and the fraud eludes the eyes of the FSA – which seems increasingly plausible – then the hostile media coverage will drag down everyone involved in mortgage advice.
The Association of IFAs warned that overblown statements of fraud will make a bad situation worse, which is true, but the indications I have been hearing are that fraud really is prevalent across the UK.
If we do not actively seek to stamp this out it will make a bad situation a bloody awful one. n