This week’s top five stories:

1) Brokers bite back: What advisers really think of lenders
Quick fire question round: Which attributes come to mind when you think about different lenders? Knowledgeable staff? Clear and consistent underwriting? Good BDMs? Mark Long has his say.

2) Fraudster jailed for 9 years over £13m property scam
One of the UK’s most “prolific female fraudsters” has been jailed for nine years after conning banks out of £13m.

3) Market Watch: What makes a good mortgage broker?
After industry heads agreed that more consolidation between mortgage networks, particularly due to distributors being disbanded.

4) FSA issues largest ever retail fine against protection firm
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued its joint largest retail fine of £10.5m to Card Protection Plan Limited (CPP) for mis-selling insurance products.

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5) A day in the life of AToM
With brokers now looking to seize every piece of business that comes their way, Mortgage Solutions’ senior reporter Adam Williams visits a firm who may hold the key to placing more cases.

Mortgage Solutions at the Mortgage Business Expo 2012:

Expo 2012: Nationwide predicts high LTV rate war for spring 2013
The impact of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) will reshape the market in spring next year, according to James Chidgey of Nationwide.

Expo 2012: Regulator preventing restoration of mortgage market
Regulators are at fault for holding back the recovery of the mortgage market, according to John Wriglesworth.

Expo 2012: Interest-only ‘time bomb’ fears unfounded – KRS
Key Retirement Solutions calmed concerns that the growing number of homeowners approaching retirement on interest-only mortgages represented a ‘time bomb’ for the industry.

Expo 2012: AMI warns claims firms not to be “silly” on interest-only
There has been no systemic mis-selling over interest-only, said Association of Mortgage Intermediaries director Robert Sinclair at the Expo today, warning any claims managers in the room not to be “silly.”

Expo 2012: Quest for case quality could scare advisers off lenders
Brokers will become increasingly scared of submitting mortgages to certain lenders if the quest for quality continues to bring high levels of cases rejected, Tenet’s Gemma Harle has said.

Tweets of the week:

Ed Mead ‏@ed_mead
Bloody hell, summer didn’t start until mid-October and Christmas seems to have come in mid-November. The exigencies of the London Market.

Stuart Gregory ‏@Mortgage_Stu
Stuck on hold…not fun. Answer soon Virgin…

Colin Payne ‏@ChapelgateNW3
Just successfully placed our biggest mortgage for the last 4 years, £2m….