Victoria announced on Monday it was entering administration, and said GMAC-RFC had agreed to look at cases in its pipeline that were due to complete imminently.
Julie Gaskin, corporate relations manager at GMAC-RFC, said the regulator had approached it two days before the news was made public to discuss it helping consumers that would be affected by Victoria’s collapse. She said: “We were contacted by the FSA over the weekend to discuss whether we would be able to help a certain amount of people who were due to complete in the next three days. Its main concern was that borrowers in that position were the innocent parties, and so we said we would help.”
Sue Anderson, head of external affairs at the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said while the previous regulator for building societies had followed the same approach to protect consumers, the current situation was unusual. She commented: “I do not know with respect to the newer lenders what the market norms should be. No doubt other lenders will say why was it [GMAC], and not us, but there is always an element of that. It is the regulator’s job to ensure an orderly environment.”
Matthew Wyles, group development director, echoed Anderson’s sentiments the regulator had done its duty in protecting consumers, but hinted other lenders had been approached to help, adding: “We should not assume the FSA only spoke to one lender.”
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesman for the FSA, said while the decision to approach GMAC had been taken by “very senior figures”, the regulator would not discuss why it was chosen, as it did not want to comment on individual firms.
Mehrdad Yousefi, distribution and sales director at Wave, said the regulator’s choice could have been based upon GMAC’s market reputation. He said: “It may be because GMAC is renowned in the market as a sub-prime lender who is in all the same markets as Victoria. The FSA is not very informed about who if the biggest lender in the market, it just hears market feedback- I do not think it will have deliberately targeted GMAC.”
