Speaking at a conference today, he said the industry must learn to explain itself better to consumers to help them understand the increasing importance of a high credit score.
“Protect and cherish your credit score is a message that UK consumers are now beginning to understand, arguably a little after it would have been most useful to them, but this is a message that we need to make sure becomes really embedded in the consumer psyche in the UK,” said Wyles.
He continued that with the absence of a public policy debate on housing policy in the UK, the CML has been one of the few bodies “prepared to put its money where its mouth is and engage.” He went on to criticise the government for its lack of clarity on the UK’s commitment to homeownership.
“The question of how we should regulate ought to tie in, in a logical world, not only with the politic rhetoric of the age of homeownership aspiration, but with the nitty-gritty practical questions of how committed we are as a society to that vision, how we want to achieve it, and what level of risk is acceptable as the trade-off for meeting it,” he said.
Wyles said both Grant Shapps the Housing Minister and Financial Secretary Mark Hoban both declined invitations to today’s conference.
But on the Mortgage Market Review, he said: “We remain hopeful that the
necessary debate and engagement from Ministers will happen actively before the new regulatory regime is implemented – afterwards is too late.”
The biggest deposit takers continue to dominate the mortgage market but these lenders would prefer greater choice, said Wyles, calling the trickle of new lenders and securitisations “modest.”
He said he doubted the FSA was happy with a mortgage market this concentrated. He said changes in the capital and liquidity regime continue to make lenders more cautious.
“I’m sure the FSA doesn’t really mean to exclude great crowds of borrowers from the market, or reduce the reasonable borrowing capacity of responsible households to meet their housing needs. And I’m sure the FSA genuinely believes that we are overegging these potential effects. But I can confidently assert that we are not crying wolf. We wouldn’t be making these points if we didn’t believe they are true,” he said.
He added that the CML “looked forward to” having the kind of dialogue with the FSA that can take these issues forward productively.
