At a Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation round table event, he said the difference between housing fraud compared to card or payment fraud was the number of parties in the transaction chain: “If a couple of them colluded you had a really big problem – which is what seems to have happened in a lot of cases I’ve seen.”

As a result of past lack of control, he said he expected major institutions would impose more rigorous restrictions over the panels of solicitors, intermediaries and valuers with which they did business.

“Lenders will wish to have manageable panels, and there may well be some who will feel their exclusion is unjustified,” he said.

“Others will have to accept that they are excluded because the quality of the business or the service which they provide has not been good enough.”

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