As at April 1998 the Council of Mortgage Lenders was advising customers who thought lenders were flouting the Mortgage Code to complain to the Mortgage Code Register of Intermediaries (MCRI), which runs the Mortgage Code Arbitration Scheme.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders set up the arbitration scheme when the Government threatened to tighten regulations on its members - mortgage lenders. It said lenders could regulate themselves under its code.

But, as you can see from the letter reproduced here, MCRI are not willing to handle complaints and refer customers to the traditional routes for dealing with them instead.

If you look carefully, you'll also notice that customers are asked to write to MCRI in Stoke-on-Trent but that the answers come from MCRI at 3 Saville Row, London. This is also the address of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Based on this, we would argue that the Mortgage Code is a charade, an attempt to convince the Government that the industry can regulate itself when, clearly, it is unwilling to do so.