ACG director Stuart Sykes said discussions hosted by the consultancy had found all high street banks and building societies had plans in place to assist customers by February 2013, including plans to contact customers up to ten years in advance.
He continued: “Whilst the banks admit they should have checks and balances in place to ensure customers had vehicles, they did rely on intermediaries to check.
“Some banks felt let down that full checks of a customer’s payment vehicle were not in place from the intermediaries or the importance of the repayment vehicle was not compounded in to the customer from the very start.”
However, banks could not “pass the buck” onto intermediaries, he added, and many of those who sold the interest-only loans were no longer in business and impossible to contact.
Last week, Building Societies Association director-general Adrian Coles told Mortgage Solutions interest-only was not a complex product and it was the borrower’s responsibility to come up with a repayment plan.
