FSR for mortgage brokers
A lack of clarity around the types of mortgage products on offer and the different specialisations developed by industry participants has given rise to high levels of confusion and a mortgage blame game, according to an analysis undertaken by Deloitte.
At the same time, the analysis has pointed to a broad consensus on the need to regulate mortgage brokers in similar fashion to financial advisers.
The big accounting and consulting firm undertook an analysis of submissions to the Parliamentary Inquiry into home lending practices and processes and said that high levels of confusion had been caused by misunderstanding a complex and increasingly sophisticated lending industry.
According to the head of Deloitte’s Securitisation practice, Graham Mott, these confusions were tending to give rise to consumers and their advocacy groups blaming the lenders.
“The banks and the regulators claim their standards remain robust. And the well-established, non-banking lenders point at the few renegade fringe operators of the industry who all agree are in danger of bringing the industry into disrepute,” he said.
Mott said the challenge for the industry and the inquiry was identifying the renegades in circumstances where sufficient data was currently unavailable.
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