The CML previously estimated that intermediaries had sourced 58% of total regulated lending because it had classified some in-branch sales as intermediated sales.
This discrepancy arose specifically when a firm sold a mortgage to another firm when both were part of the lending group.
As an example, the CML cited: “This might be where NatWest Bank sells a mortgage but NatWest Home Loans is the regulated firm actually lending the money. They are different regulated firms but for all intents and purposes this is a direct sale.”
The trade body said the issue had arisen in the past couple of years as a number of firms had changed reporting structure.
This issue had become apparent when the Financial Services Authority published its own Personal Sales Data trends report in 2011.
The report said “Since Q2 2010, there has been a clear decline in the proportion of intermediates sales in the mortgage market (from 51% to 47% in Q1 2011).”
CML’s own figures then indicated a higher figure of 58% of sales sold via intermediaries.
Conversations between the trade body and regulator revealed that the FSA had made manual adjustments to account for some intra-group sales so that they showed as direct sales rather than intermediary.
The CML then conducted a complete audit of the residential mortgage survey dataset to discover whether each relevant lender themselves viewed their own “intra-group sales” as direct or via intermediary.
It has now completed the process and has led to revisions of its data.
