With 20 per cent of all financial frauds being mortgage related, the FSA is striving ahead with new regulations. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has had its hands full during the last year. With the property loan came big levels of fraud and misuse of the system resulting in 30 mortgage brokers being banned and over 500,000 pounds in fines handed out by the FSA.

The FSA’s first step in regulation of the mortgage industry is for all advisers to be approved. The industry will see this change start at the beginning of 2011.

The FSA says: "We believe this will lead to increased transparency within the industry and help to prevent unfit or rogue individuals from entering the industry to protect consumers from fraud."

Aside from having advisers going through an approval process, the dissolution of self cert or fast track mortgages should provide more control against falsifying mortgage applications.

As with anything else that involves a business process to it; it takes only a few bad apples to make the whole barrel bad.

This is the case with fraud within our industry. If a few mortgage brokers are caught in the out, then the entire industry gets a black eye.

Director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries Robert Sinclair says: "I represent a group of brokers who want to see fraud eradicated. We want it gone as much as anyone else as it does us no good at all. It damages the reputation of the great and the good so we support any actions the lenders take to deliver that."

Premier Mortgage Services (PMS) executive chairman John Malone thinks brokers are being singled out as the main agents of fraud.

He said: "We have to get the message out to the mortgage intermediaries that they do have fraud on their doorstep even if they are not aware of it. I want brokers to look around and to realize that they have to be more careful than they have been in the past."

First Action Finance head of communications Jonathan Correll also agrees with the FSA actions.

He said: "It knows it needs to drive out fraud. For the small guy that will make life more difficult and that’s sad. But that’s life, the FSA is simply making changes to ensure the industry’s longevity."