The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has welcomed the Treasury’s move to support its lobbying over proposals for a European directive on lending and borrowing.
The lender body says the Treasury has shared its proposed amendments to the directive, which support the CML’s work to persuade the European Parliament to address concerns about the impact of the proposed directive.
A key area of concern for lenders is that the proposed directive, as drafted, would capture buy-to-let mortgages as well as lending on properties that are used for both residential and commercial purposes. The CML’s position is that buy-to-let lending should not be regulated as it is a commercial investment rather than a residential mortgage and says the Treasury backs this position.
The CML is also against any requirement to provide borrowers with a European standardised information sheet on mortgage credit, as set out by article nine of the proposed directive.
It says it does support pre-contractual disclosure of information to consumers in the form of a KFI, but argues that introducing the European information sheet in this country would cost borrowers and lenders tens of millions of pounds, “yet deliver no obvious benefits to UK consumers””.
