Like Australia, the UK has been operating in an environment of heightened banking regulation since 2014, when policies were put in place to mitigate housing market risks, notes mortgagebusiness.com.au. These measures included limiting the proportion of mortgages at loan to income multiples of 4.5 and above to no more than 15 per cent of new mortgages. Following an extensive review, the Bank of England this week announced that it "now expects these insurance measures to become structural features of the UK housing market", leading AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver to suggest least some of APRA's macroprudential measures to limit investor mortgages will become permanent. The nation's peak regulators have advised the Productivity Commission to zero in on account portability, multi-brand strategies and fraudulent activity by traders at a roundtable hearing in Melbourne yesterday, ahead of the formal start of the inquiry next week. The AFR reports that APRA's Wayne Byres, ASIC's Peter Kell and ACCC's general manager of enforcement, Marcus Bezzi, all touched on the nature of concentration in the sector. "Our perception is that in many products and segments that there is cosiness or a lack of competitive culture" Bezzi said. Non-bank lender La Trobe Financial has its second residential mortgage backed security transaction for 2017 in the works, according to sources. The AFR's Street Talk said it understands the deal is being pitched to investors at A$350 million to $500 million in size. It follows a $300 million transaction earlier this year. The RMBS issue, targeted for September, is part of La Trobe's overall funding mix which also includes institutional term facilities and its own credit fund, the AFR notes. The first Bartercard licensee for Continental Europe has been signed up. The new master franchisee is Marc-William Attie, based in Paris. There are currently over 3 million small and medium enterprises in France amongst a population of 65 million. This marks the company's next stage of expansion into Europe, after setting up in Britain. Trading in the format of cashless transactions that is the modernised version of barter "has turned into a viable economy of scale that Bartercard is spearheading," said Brian Hall, CEO of the ASX-listed Bartercard International.