What is the mortgage market review?

The review sets out the case for varying our current regulatory approach to the mortgage market  and specifically whether there is a case to   restrict access to high-risk lending and borrowing, without  limiting flexibility or access to mortgage products for consumers.

We have proposed  several changes to ensure we have a mortgage market that works better for consumers and is more sustainable for all participants,  these have  been set out in Discussion Paper 09/3 - Mortgage Market Review.

What is the background to this?

While the mortgage market has worked well for many  people, it has been a cause of major economic distress for others and our existing regulatory framework has proved to be ineffective in constraining in particular high-risk lending and borrowing.

What are the main proposals?

We have set these out in our ‘at a glance’ guide. [PDF]

Where can we find out more?

You can read the discussion paper in full on our website:

What are the timescales?

We invite the industry to provide feedback on our proposals and we have set out a deadline  of 30 January 2010 for you to provide us with your views. You can do this through the online response form on our website:

The next paper we publish on the review will be a Feedback Statement in March 2010, which will cover what we have heard during the discussion period and our views on how to take the review forward.  We will then publish a further Consultation Paper (or papers) with more details on any specific rule changes we plan to make.     

We will look at the best timetable for putting in place our proposals and we intend to move quickly to consult where possible and where proposals have support.