The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) welcomes today's announcement by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of its seven point programme to raise awareness of financial capability in schools, colleges and universities over the next five years.
The CML is particularly keen to encourage people to consider the risks associated with their borrowing decisions, and it is for this reason that we have worked with the FSA to develop the 'debt test', an online tool designed to help consumers gauge their levels of debt and highlight any potential borrowing risks.
We are also committed to the sustainable home-ownership (SUSHO) initiative which encourages home buyers to take a long-term look at their financial position and ensure they have a sufficient safety-net in place to avoid getting into arrears and potentially losing their home. In recent years the SUSHO initiative has seen the take-up of mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) increase substantially and its leaflet entitled, Take cover for a rainy day, has seen distribution of over one million copies.
Commenting on today's announcement, CML's Director General Michael Coogan said: "Helping people to improve their financial capability enables them to make informed decisions about how they spend their money and avoid getting into too much debt. We believe it is essential that consumers have all the advice and information they need to help them make the right borrowing decisions, especially when entering home-ownership for the first time. Today's announcement is another crucial step in making more people aware of the need to improve their financial capability and we look forward to working with the FSA to implement the new strategy."
