Credit crunch ‘must not harm White Paper aims’

The White Paper, due for publication next month after a number of delays, will set out how closer integration of the European mortgage market will be implemented, allowing lenders and brokers to expand into different EU countries much more smoothly.

However, the CML insisted that the goals set out from the beginning, and outlined in the Green Paper published earlier this year, should not be watered down by what has happened in the past couple of months.

In its ‘News and Views’ newsletter, it said: “As it makes any final modifications to the White Paper, we would urge the EC not to let recent market developments lead it to lose sight of some of the key arguments presented in the Green Paper that preceded it. In that document, the EC made it clear that intervention could only be justified if there was a clear business case to support it. Such an approach would be a welcome example of the better regulation agenda in action.”

The CML also reiterated that any recommendations from the White Paper should be delayed until the results of the EU’s survey of European brokers were published in late 2008.

Tony Capon, head of intermediary sales at Salt, commented: “Europe could provide an opportunity for UK lenders to look at establishing a presence in some of these more undeveloped markets.”

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