FSA takes action against broker
The UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, has recently taken action against a mortgage broker that was said to be involved in fraudulent activity.
The regulator has both fined and banned the broker after he was allegedly found to have been involved in the submission of false mortgage applications. The broker at the centre of the action was Abiola Agbalaya, and officials from the FSA said that the action taken against the broker was a deterrent against others getting involved in mortgage fraud, which has become more prevalent since the onset of the global credit crunch since when mortgage finance has become increasingly difficult to come by.
In the past two years the FSA has apparently banned over thirty brokers in a bid to try and reduce mortgage fraud. It is said that in the latest case the broker managed to obtain several mortgages having submit applications that overstated both his income and the profits that his company, Herald Finance Ltd, was making. A mortgage consultant working at Herald, Grace Olatunji, was also banned for the submission of applications that contained false income details.
The FSA has already made it clear over the past year or two that harsh punishment and any necessary action will be taken against mortgage industry professionals that are found to be involved in this sort of fraud. The regulator has been striving to crack down on mortgage fraud levels recently, and as a result those that are found to be involved are given serious punishments, including hefty fines and bans from operating in the industry.
One official from the FSA said: “Perpetrators of fraud will increasingly find themselves facing bans and significant fines as we continue our work in this area.”
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