Do you trust the Financial Conduct Authority with your personal data?

Do you trust the Financial Conduct Authority with your personal data?

19:30 PM, 16th May 2013, About 11 years ago 4

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FCAThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), partially taken over from the FSA, is to collect the personal information from mortgage applications for use by its policy risk and research division to monitor the lending of banks.

This raises serious Data Protection act questions and we are also asked to trust another body Phoenixed out of the FSA who failed to monitor banking practices that lead to the near complete collapse of the UK’s banking industry.

The plan under the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) will be to capture all the information supplied on a mortgage application, which if you have ever filled one out you will know contains pretty much everything about your personal, employment, income, spending, assets and credit details.

Under the Data protection act if you collect personal data the duties include:

  • Only recording information required to complete the requested transaction
  • The Information must be accurate and not of opinion
  • The information must be kept securely and not used for another purpose unless requested to do so.

If this comes into force under new MMR rules in April 2014 customers will have no option as the Lenders will simply claim they have to pass on your data as it is a requirement to complete your requested transaction

For existing mortgages the FCA will collect the property’s postcode, an estimate of what it is worth and information on the current outstanding balance and any arrears.

It is not yet clear if Buy-to-Let mortgage information will be collected, but there seems to be no reason why this would be left out as it is designed to monitor the prudence and performance of bank lending.

The FCA said “the plans reflected its objectives to protect consumers by helping it identify risks and prevent harm, enabling it to make quicker and bolder decisions to keep the market running efficiently and promoting effective competition.”

“Any personal data we collect will be fairly and lawfully processed in compliance with the first data protection principle. We consider that in collecting the data we will be acting compatibly with the right to privacy. The collection of the data is necessary to achieve the aims set out in this consultation paper, and any interference with the right is proportionate to those aims.”


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Comments

3:37 AM, 17th May 2013, About 11 years ago

This info is already captured by the National Hunter system which ensures that every lender can view ANY credit application you have ever made and make a determination on whether to lend.
Why does the govt need to know when private lending industry already knows the info!?

Neil Patterson

9:03 AM, 17th May 2013, About 11 years ago

Hi Paul,

The hunter match is an old school system from the 90s for lenders to share fraudulent applications. I do not believe it is a data capture system for private companies to abuse the data protection act. Although these days who knows !!!!

Definition from their own website:

he NationalHUNTER system is an anti-fraud data sharing system for use by members of the Financial Services Industry.It was founded in 1993, with the assistance of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). From the initial six member organisations, the system has grown to include approximately 90 sites, all sharing application information for the purposes of fraud prevention.

N HUNTER Limited is an independent not-for-profit company and is solely concerned with the prevention of application fraud within the Banking and Finance community.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

11:53 AM, 17th May 2013, About 11 years ago

One has to wonder whether the FCA will share this information with other Government Departments?

For example, will the information be used to identify HMO finance applications which don't get an HMO licence. Will it be used to cross reference BTL applications with EPC and Gas Safety Check records? Will the data be cross referenced with HMRC and Land Registry?

This might sound far fetched but try buying a new TV from an electrical retailer for one of your BTL properties and using the address of that property. Within days you will receive a TV Licencing notification to your name at the address provided. Therefore, national retailers are obviously providing this information to TV Licencing, or should I say CAPITA, a private company to whom TV licencing is outsourced!

There has been much debate about "Big Brother" watching us, whether that's Google, the Government, the Credit referencing Agencies or others. Slowly but surely all of these data centres are linking up. Bottom line is this, if you are paranoid about it you have good reason to be, Big Brother IS watching you!

Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about for people who are obeying the law and have nothing to hide. Having said that, I wonder how long it will be before somebody finds a laptop on a train with the entire database of all buy to let mortgages arranged? If it's you, please let me know! LOL

r01

0:21 AM, 19th May 2013, About 11 years ago

I don't trust any government authorised body.

It's well known the government is determined to tie all systems together & I suspect the DPS info on rent levels, deposits taken, property addresses and owners etc is already being passed on to the Inland revenue. It doesn't worry me because I declare my income and pay my taxes correctly.

Big brother is watching......... and getting nosier ........

It's just a shame they can't get up off their fat backsides and find those that cheat the system rather than spend their time watching those that don't.

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