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The EBF acknowledges the joint effort of all European institutions to facilitate the emergence of a smoothly functioning internal market in this area. “It is essential to align further the Mortgage Credit and Consumer Credit rules which already exist at EU level, despite the different mortgage particularities”, explained Ravoet.
This new Directive will indeed align further the responsible practices and legal incentives already implemented for some years in most of the EU Member States. In this respect, the EBF stresses that the problems identified during the financial crisis were not as widespread in the EU as in the US mortgage credit markets. Apart from in very few countries, the financial crisis has not revealed any specific crisis of the mortgage credit market or any dysfunction of the EU mortgage market due to irresponsible lending practices.
The EBF also welcomes the new regulatory framework for intermediaries, implementing an EU passport which will help develop a cross-border mortgage market and high level principles on financial education for consumers.
Finally, once the final agreement is adopted, the EBF believes that Members States, which will have to consider the best option to implement the text, should leave the possibility for banks to at least recoup their costs/losses when a mortgage is repaid early.