FIN.

FCA publishes mortgage prisoner review

FCA has laid its mortgage prisoner review before Parliament. The review sets out data that will help the Government consider whether any practical and proportionate solutions could help these borrowers. FCA’s data suggests that of the 195,000 borrowers who have mortgages in closed books with inactive firms, around 66,000 may be able to switch and could be helped to do so, 30,000 can’t switch but would be unlikely to benefit even if they could, 47,000 are “prisoners” who are up to date with payments and could benefit from switching, but have loan and/or borrower characteristics which are outside current lender appetite, 34,000 are in shortfall and 18,000 near term so would not be able to switch even if they were with an active lender.

FCA’s data also shows that both demand and supply for switching has been low, but is now encouraging lenders to see whether they might slightly stretch their risk appetite to consider mortgage prisoners who are close to it.

Emma Radmore