Subprime mortgage firm fined £900K

A UK financial adviser has been fined £900,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for subprime mortgage failings.

The Thinc Group was fined by the regulator for failing to obtain enough information from subprime mortgage customers before giving advice in deals worth £76.9 million.

The firm was also judged to have failed to show customers' credit histories meant they fell into the subprime class – reserved for those with poor credit histories.

The FSA also found Thinc – a subsidiary of insurance giant Axa - failed to show why subprime mortgages matched the needs of their customers.

Further failings were found over checking how people could afford the higher cost subprime mortgages.

However, the FSA judged that Thinc did not mis-sell any subprime mortgages.

Margaret Cole, FSA director of enforcement, said: "This case demonstrates the importance of firms being able to prove to themselves and to the FSA, through proper records, that they are treating their customers fairly by doing everything necessary to make sure that they get suitable advice.

"The level of fine shows that we are determined to impose higher fines for serious failings in the retail market and that poor record keeping is a serious failing even where, as in this case, the FSA has not determined that the firm missold subprime mortgages and there have been few complaints."