Speaking in a debate hosted by the European Parliament’s London office, Malcolm Harbour said the directive did not impose any significant burden on the UK mortgage industry.
Harbour, who chairs the European Parliament’s committee on internal market and consumer protection, said: “The UK in terms of consumer protection has a very wide and comprehensive range of regulations that is actually denser than what you will find in many other European countries. In a way the directive has levelled the playing field.”
However, he suggested different property laws and attitudes to home ownership across Europe meant it would be hard for UK firms to export mortgage services.
He said: “My committee argued quite strongly it was premature to have a mortgage directive. That view didn’t prevail.
“It is a fairly light directive. I see it as paving the way for opportunities but I don’t actually think there’s going to be a huge increase out of the UK.”
Participating in the same debate, Berenberg Bank chief economist Holger Schmieding argued EU membership had helped to make Britain the service centre of Europe.
He said: “The alternative to regulation from Brussels is usually not to have no regulation, but to have national regulation. Most of the regulation coming from Brussels is actually more liberal than national regulation.
“If someone let Brussels relax the British planning laws the country would be better off than it is.”
