Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 3:13 pm on 25 October 2007.
My Lords, my noble friend is referring to two kinds of lending, one where there is security involved and one where there is no security. On the latter, I referred to action the OFT might take against irresponsible lenders in an earlier answer. As far as mortgages are concerned, the FSA has been doing a lot of work in this area recently. It recently published details of a review into the behaviour of intermediaries and lenders within the sub-prime mortgage market. It discovered weaknesses in responsible lending practices and in firms' assessments of consumers' ability to afford a mortgage. As a result it referred five firms to its enforcement division. Potential remedies include withdrawal of their permission to operate and financial penalties.