In its position paper on the consultation document presented by the European Commission, the EFBS emphasises that it sees no need for the “horizontal Directive” on “responsible lending” obviously being planned by the Commission, which would also cover mortgage credit that hitherto has not been regulated at EU level. The consultation process on the “White Paper on Mortgage Credit” of December 2007 already showed that harmonisation would scarcely lead to more favourable conditions for consumers or an extension of the product range, on account not only of the different financing cultures in the member states, but also, and above all, of the alignment of the refinancing conditions on the capital markets since the introduction of the euro, said Federation Managing Director, Andreas J. Zehnder.

 

 

Instead of introducing new pan-European regulations on creditworthiness assessment and determining collateral value and deliberating on advice standards and credit intermediaries, the European Commission should ask instead why the financial crisis caused difficulties to home-buyers only in some member states, but not in others. “The answer is obvious,” Zehnder continued. “In countries like Germany, France and Luxembourg housing finance was unaffected by turbulence because borrowers there traditionally finance with high equity rates and fixed rates of interest.”