City regulator suggests making it easier to shop around could save 1 in 3 borrowers £550 a year
Plans to make it easier for mortgage borrowers to shop around have been proposed by the City regulator, after it found nearly one in three people fail to find the cheapest deal.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said these people could have saved £550 per year with a lower-priced deal. It is also exploring ways to help “mortgage prisoners” – longstanding customers who are trapped in their existing deal – to switch.
Publishing its interim report into the mortgage market, the FCA said it had found that competition was working well for many people. But it also identified ways in which the market could work better.
The regulator said that while there was little evidence that current arrangements between firms were leading to poor consumer outcomes, there was no easy way for people to be confident at an early stage of the mortgage products they qualify for.Mortgage debt accounts for more than 80% of total UK household liabilities, so selecting a deal is one of the most important financial decisions consumers have to take, but it can be a difficult one to get right, the FCA said.
This is a significant impediment to shopping around, and about 30% of customers fail to find the cheapest mortgage for them, it said. On average, these consumers were paying approximately £550 per year more over the introductory period of their mortgage compared with the cheaper product.
The FCA also proposed making it easier for people to compare mortgage brokers, saying it intended to work with the broker sector to develop ways to compare deals.One approach could involve lenders making the necessary eligibility and other qualification criteria available to other market participants consistently at an earlier stage, the FCA suggested. This should help brokers and also create other opportunities for new online tools, it said.
The report said: “We found that on average a consumer’s choice of intermediary makes a difference to the eventual cost of their mortgage. In particular, we have observed links between more expensive mortgages and intermediaries that typically place business with fewer lenders. But there are few tools to help consumers choose an intermediary.”
Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition, said: “For many the market is working well with high levels of consumer engagement. However, we believe that things could work better with more innovative tools to help consumers.
“There are also a number of longstanding borrowers that have kept up to date with their mortgage repayments but are unable to get a new mortgage deal; we want to explore ways that we, and the industry, can help them.”
The FCA also outlined how “mortgage prisoners” could be better helped, many of whom took out interest-only deals before the financial crisis. Stricter lending practices since the crisis have made it harder for these customers to find a cheaper mortgage.
The regulator suggested there could be an industry-wide agreement for lenders to approve applications for a new mortgage deal from existing customers whose most recent mortgage was taken out before the financial crisis and who are up to date with their payments.
The FCA will consult on the findings and proposed remedies, with a final report due around the end of the year.
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