The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced new measures to combat fraud by mortgage brokers, in a move that could benefit borrowers as well. This approach will include targeted visits to intermediaries to assess their financial crime system and controls, enhancing the system by which lenders pass fraud intelligence onto the FSA and also improving the ways in which this information is used. Moreover, the FSA will collaborate more closely with other regulators and law enforcement agencies, as well as encouraging more pooling of information and intelligence within the mortgage industry itself. Director of financial crime and intelligence Philip Robinson warned that mortgage fraud was serious and widespread and urged lenders to help fight it, while calling on brokers to offer 'suitable advice' and ensure that their businesses are not used illegally. Council of Mortgage Lenders director general Michael Coogan praised this initiative, arguing that unless fraudsters are tackled it is borrowers who will end up paying more and predicting that even more lenders would now participate in anti-fraud efforts.