LONDON (Reuters UK) - The European Commission should shelve plans to integrate Europe's fragmented home mortgage markets after so much change across the industry in recent months, according to a UK lobby group.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said conditions had changed so much since the EU issued a white paper in December that "it would make no sense to proceed".
The Commission wants a more integrated market to allow lenders to offer consumers loans across borders, potentially cutting mortgage costs.
It stopped short of proposing new laws, but its white paper said by introducing more competition consumers could save as much as 470 euros (369 pounds) per year in interest on a 100,000 euro mortgage loan.
"Proposals to further the integration of markets are unlikely to produce net benefits in the present climate," said Andrew Heywood, deputy head of policy at the CML. "We believe that the Commission itself recognises this, and will not bring forward proposals in the immediate future."
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Cowell)
