Setting out its policy on data reporting in its policy statement PS13/12, the Financial Conduct Authority acknowledged concerns that the level of affordability detail required exceeded that outlined by the MMR.
It consulted on the proposal earlier this year and in response to concerns, the regulator has combined or deleted several of the proposed details.
The regulator said: “Our aim in collecting affordability data is not for us to re-underwrite individual mortgages, but to identify risks and issues in individual firms, and the market as a whole, and where necessary to provide a basis for further investigation.”
Under MMR, lenders must provide the FCA with additional information about their mortgage lending. This is intended to ensure the regulator is better placed to identify risks to the consumer or the market.
However, firms have raised concerns about the level of detail required on borrowers’ committed expenditure and household spending, as well as the cost of supplying the additional data.
The FCA now plans to simplify some of the data requirements. In one example, the requirement to provide details of an applicant’s monthly credit commitments and other committed expenditure will now be reduced to a single category, monthly committed expenditure.
Lenders also expressed concerns about explaining how the sale was made for intermediary sales, as they would be reliant on information supplied by the adviser. As a result, the FCA has removed this requirement.
Council of Mortgage Lenders head of member and external relations Sue Anderson said the adjusted requirements reflected extensive work between the lenders’ body and the regulator.
She said: “We welcome the FCA’s responsiveness to firms’ concerns about costs and complexity, which have resulted in the revised requirements.”
