FSA fines Axa’s mortgage broker Thinc £900,000

The City regulator has fined Thinc, a sub-prime mortgage broker, £900,000 for poor risk management and record-keeping as the watchdog clamps down on shoddy practices in retail financial services.

The fine is the Financial Services Authority's second-biggest this year and the heftiest it has imposed on a sub-prime operator after stepping up checks in the past two years.

There was no evidence that Thinc, which is owned by the French insurer Axa, mis-sold mortgages. But it had not made proper checks that £77m of loans were right for the customers. The 775 mortgages in question generated about £700,000 of income for the broker.

Margaret Cole, the FSA's director of enforcement, said: "This case demonstrates the importance of firms being able to prove to themselves and to the FSA, through proper records, that they are treating their customers fairly. The level of fine shows that we are determined to impose higher fines for serious failings in the retail market and that poor record keeping is a serious failing."

Thinc said it regretted the failings and that it had cooperated with the FSA.