Find out about our Information from Lenders (IFL) scheme and use our online reporting document to tell us about suspected fraud.
How IFL works
Using our IFL reporting form, lenders can tell us about intermediaries they suspect of being involved in mortgage fraud.
The scheme is voluntary, but we expect you to help us win the fight against financial crime. The IFL scheme helps your firm and others in the industry fight fraud, reduces the chance of your firm being used to commit financial crime or facing a loss because of it.
For legal reasons, we may not always be able to provide you with details of investigations, but we will give you as much feedback as possible, and work with you to make submissions as strong as possible.
What we expect from lenders
You are responsible for making sure your business is not vulnerable to fraud – whether you are exposing it to unscrupulous customers or organised mortgage fraud gangs.
All lenders:
- should have robust and proportionate resources, systems and controls in place so you can identify, detect and prevent mortgage fraud
- should make fraud detection and prevention a key part of your business
- senior management should be responsible for managing fraud risks, overseeing, owning and regularly reviewing the control framework’s effectiveness
Fraudsters and rogue intermediaries use their experience and knowledge of the market to identify and exploit loop holes, such as differing lending criteria or gaps in any checks and balances in the underwriting process. You must make sure your firm is not solely targeted because of easily exploitable flaws in your processes.
We hold lenders responsible for weak fraud controls and will forcefully pursue any poor systems and controls by supervising more intensively and using enforcement action where appropriate.
Help for lenders considering making IFL referrals
It would be helpful for us to receive fully investigated cases, in which the complicity of the intermediary in the fraud has been proved. However, we recognise it can be difficult for lenders to complete a detailed investigation in every case. The guide linked below may help in this process.
If you would like to tell us about suspected fraud at an intermediary, please complete the Information from Lenders (IFL) online reporting form[3].
Information we will ask for in our online reporting form[4].
If you wish to discuss general mortgage fraud and financial crime prevention at your firm, contact your FCA supervisor or our Firm Contact Centre[5].
