Tell us about suspected mortgage fraud and learn more about our Information from Lenders (IFL) scheme to fight financial crime.
What we expect from lenders
You are responsible for making sure your business is not vulnerable to fraud – whether you are exposing it to unscrupulous customers or organised mortgage fraud gangs.
All lenders should:
- Have robust and proportionate resources, systems and controls in place so you can identify, detect and prevent mortgage fraud.
- Make fraud detection and prevention a key part of your business.
- Have senior management responsible for managing fraud risks, overseeing, owning and regularly reviewing the control framework’s effectiveness.
Fraudsters and rogue brokers use their experience and knowledge of the market to identify and exploit loopholes, such as differing lending criteria or gaps in any checks and balances in the underwriting process.
You must make sure your firm is not targeted only because of easily exploitable flaws in your processes.
We hold lenders responsible for weak fraud controls and will forcefully pursue any poor systems and controls by supervising more intensively and using enforcement action where appropriate.
If you wish to discuss general mortgage fraud and financial crime prevention at your firm, contact your FCA supervisor or our contact centre for firms[2].
When to refer a case to the FCA
Tell us if you know or suspect a mortgage intermediary has acted fraudulently.
It’s helpful to send us fully investigated cases, in which the intermediary's complicity in the fraud has been proved. However, we recognise it can be difficult for lenders to complete a detailed investigation in every case.
We do not have rigid criteria for when to refer a case to us. You need to exercise your judgement in each case, and consider various factors.
The 2 most common categories for lender referrals are when:
- You’ve removed an intermediary (or individual employed or engaged by the intermediary) from your panel because of their own or someone else’s mortgage application(s).
- You have proof, or are suspicious, the intermediary is being used as a conduit for financial crime. (For example, the intermediary may have weak systems and controls that suggest it may be used as a conduit for financial crime.)
For lenders processing high volumes of mortgages, we understand you may need to be pragmatic about how many referrals you make.
Sending us thousands of referrals each year is not practical for us or lenders.
How to make a referral
To tell us about suspected mortgage fraud, complete the online reporting form[3].
(There's a different form to report consumer credit lending fraud[4].)
Please provide as much detail as possible and upload relevant documents.
Tell us any information you think is relevant, or we should be aware of.
If you do not want us to share information with the intermediary, tell us this in the form.
For legal reasons, we may not always be able to share details of investigations, but we’ll give you as much feedback as we can, and work with you to make submissions as strong as possible.
What details to include in a referral
In our online reporting form, we’ll ask for the following information.
Lender contact information
You’ll need to provide:
- Lender name/firm reference number.
- Your contact information – name, direct telephone number, email address.
Intermediary details
You’ll need to tell us:
- Intermediary name/ firm reference number (FRN).
- Whether the intermediary is an AR.
If the intermediary is an AR, provide the principal firm’s name/FRN too.
Name of individual(s) removed from panel
If you have not removed the whole firm from the panel, explain what steps you have taken to mitigate the risk of harm.
(You can do this in the comments box on the form.)
Have you notified the:
- Intermediary of your decision to remove it from your panel?
- Intermediary that you have told the FCA it has been removed from your panel?
- Principal firm that this appointed representative (AR) has been removed from your panel?
Other questions we ask:
- Does this removal relate to 1st, 2nd charge, or both mortgage applications?
- Do you suspect the intermediary (or individual) was complicit in the fraud and why you think they were complicit?
- Was the intermediary (or individual) removed from the lender panel because of its own mortgage application(s)?
- Was the intermediary (or individual) removed from the lender panel because of applications made on behalf of others?
- Number of applications received from the intermediary.
- Number of applications that cause concern and when these applications were submitted
- How long ago the applications had been submitted?
- Are you aware of police involvement at the firm?
If you have any questions, contact us.
- Email Lucy Masters: [email protected][5].
- Contact our Supervision team[6].
How IFL works
The IFL scheme is voluntary, but we expect you to help us win the fight against financial crime.
Lenders taking part in this scheme in IFL and the resulting actions by the FCA have already been hugely beneficial for the industry, consumers and the wider community in tackling financial crime.
The scheme helps your firm and others in the industry to fight fraud and reduces the chances of your firm being used to commit financial crime or facing a loss because of it.
