A majority of mortgage brokers banned by the FSA this year is located in an area of east London, an investigation has shown.
One-third of the mortgage brokers banned by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) so far this year were located in a single Greater London town, the Guardian reports.
An investigation from the newspaper's Money section has revealed that four of the twelve sanctions for 2008 were for firms which traded in Ilford, a suburb to the east of the capital city. Furthermore, a further three were located in nearby Barking and Forest Gate, meaning that an overall majority of this year's bans originate from a single district.
The most high-profile of these is last week's fine and ban of Ilford-based mortgage broker Sadia Nasir, who must now pay a £129,000 penalty to the FSA. Ms Nasir was found by the regulator to have submitted mortgage applications containing fraudulent information, including faked pay slips; it was also found to be "highly likely" that these home purchases were for her own "personal gain".
When contacted by the newspaper, the FSA said that Ilford contained "a concentration there that we picked up. We are looking for further potential cases in London and elsewhere".
A local businessman added that he had his own suspicions for the prevalence of the crime: "I can only tell you what's been said. The general consensus of opinion is that the majority of them appear to be Asian-based organisations, and I'm afraid some of them appear to put very little store by the rules and regulations, and do what they want to do." However, a local independent financial adviser disagreed, saying that the problem was "not just [in] Ilford", and that "villains will be villains whether they live in Ilford or Barking or Manchester".
The Guardian added that its investigation has not uncovered evidence of a mortgage fraud "crime ring" in the area, and that the sanctioned brokers seemed instead to be "in it for themselves".
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