The FSA’s head of conduct policy Sheila Nicoll told the CML conference that the regulator is very aware of the proposals from Europe on regulating the buy-to-let market and that it was taking the whole directive into account in creating the Mortgage Market Review.
Nicolls said: “”We are very alive to the buy-to-let issue. One of the challenges is that that part of the market is much more important in other member states. We are deeply conscious of the concerns around that.”
Yet, she added: “We don’t regulate buy to let and that is a matter for the government. We see the logic of the buy-to-let market being regulated alongside residential.”
Nevertheless, Nicoll said that standardising regulation across all financial markets in Europe was not appropriate, given that the discussion around harmonising regulation at a European level had traditionally stemmed from the securities market.
She said: “We have to get over the message that one-size-fits-all is appropriate in the whole of the market. It does not necessarily work in the retail market.”
