Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS)
Introduction
Mortgage lenders representing more than 90% of regulated mortgage lending provide us with copies of the mortgage Product Sales Data that they report to the FSA. We refer to this as our Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS).
All lenders who conduct regulated mortgage lending are free to participate, regardless of whether or not they are CML members. In return, member firms that participate gain access to high-quality and timely market information, including a range of aggregate market data that is freely available via our interactive database (IADB). We also offer data-providers an attractive range of chargeable value-added services.
These activities are run on a closed user group basis, so you will need an individual login and password (separate from your main CML website access) to view data.
Please contact james.tatch@cml.org.uk to see if your firm participates in RMS, if you wish to start participating or to find out how to access RMS data services.
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Background
Since April 2005, the FSA has required firms to report transaction details for each new regulated mortgage contract, called Product Sales Data (PSD). You can find full details of these requirements via the reporting area of the FSA's website.
Lenders are only required to provide PSD on a quarterly basis, but the FSA will accommodate monthly submissions if lenders wish to do this. This has created an opportunity for the CML to develop a high-quality and timely source of market information.
We invite all mortgage lenders to submit their PSD information to us each month on a confidential basis. We call this initiative our Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS), to distinguish it from the PSD submissions that the FSA collects for regulatory purposes only. In return for data provision to CML, member firms can interrogate an extensive set of aggregate RMS results via our web-based interactive database (IADB) free of charge.
We also offer participating firms the opportunity to subscribe to a range of chargeable value-added services based on RMS data. These enable lenders to do bespoke analyses, such as market share performance in specific market segments.
Only a very small number of key data items, based on RMS data, are publicly available.
A summary of our expectations of lenders, the service standards that we adhere to and the uses to which RMS information will be put can be found in our memorandum of understanding document. The confidentiality of data submitted by each firm providing data is of paramount importance to us, and at no time will other users of the service be able to identify any firm's lending data.
The vast majority of participating firms submit data on a monthly basis. However, a small number of lenders are only willing or able to provide quarterly submissions. These lenders do not have access to monthly data, the full functionality of the IADB or benchmarking services. But they can use the IADB to view or download pre-formatted Excel tables of quarterly aggregate data, based on submissions from all (monthly and quarterly) RMS data providers. By contrast, monthly RMS providers get to see Excel tables both for monthly reporters only and for the expanded population of monthly and quarterly providers. In addition they can of course access all the functionality of the IADB.
Over time, we envisage that firms only able to provide quarterly RMS data initially will switch to monthly reporting. In future, when the number of quarterly reporters becomes very small, provision of any quarterly Excel tables would compromise lender confidentiality. From that point onwards, we will not accept quarterly data submissions at all. We will then only provide a monthly IADB and Excel tables, to which monthly data providers alone would have access.
The FSA's PSD reporting requirements currently incorporate a number of non-statutory or "voluntary" fields. Lenders do not have to provide these details, but may do so if they wish. Only lenders that provide us with data on these fields have access to associated tables and time series. In essence, the principle we follow is that lenders only have access to results that correspond to the data they provide.
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Submitting data
From April 2010 we ask all firms providing us with their Product Sales Data file to submit an additional copy of each PSD file that you submit to the FSA directly to the CML. Note that this is as well as, not instead of the copy you already submit to BankSearch on our behalf. This forms part of our preparation for the switch to new RMS arrangements from the end of 2010.
Secure methods for submitting your data:
1. Web upload facility - this is available in our Member uploads section (you may already use this facility to submit other data returns to us). This utilises SSL technology.
2. SFTP – you will need to use an FTP client eg Filezilla to transfer files. Access details for the SFTP site are as follows -
Hostname: statistics.cml.org.uk
Port: 22
Your company will have a username and password to access the SFTP. If you need a reminder or any further information please contact pat.gauntlett@cml.org.uk.
