Equity release providers have been calling for a "level playing field", as one company director put it, in the industry for more than a year, but the push has received a new impetus in the last few months after the UK's Financial Services Authority adopted its own set of standards for equity release companies in April, while an interagency group out of the Department of Finance circulated its own set of recommendations to stakeholders in March.

On Thursday the Financial Services Consultative Industry Panel, which advises the regulator, also called for gaps in the regulations to be closed, pointing out that the Consumer Protection Code won't apply to non-deposittaking entities such as home reversion companies.

Under current consumer credit law, so-called "lifetime mortgages" . . . which allow homeowners to borrow against equity without having to make repayments prior to the sale of the property or the death of the borrowers . . .

are regulated as financial products, while home reversion schemes . . . which require the sale of a percentage of the home to release the equity . . . are not.

Lifetime mortgage providers believe the unregulated nature of home reversion schemes causes confusion in the market and prejudices consumer sentiment against their own products. They want regulation to reassure consumers who have been scared off their niche of the market.

"We welcome regulation of the whole equity release sector because it would do away with the taboo surrounding it, " said Tara Collins, marketing manager at Seniors Money Ireland.

Home reversion providers, on the other hand, believe their regulated competitors enjoy an unfair advantage in the broker market.

"Brokers are only legally obliged to offer 'best advice' on regulated products, " said James Wyse, managing director of Residential Reversions Limited. "How can a broker advise on two different products when he can only talk about one? How is that 'best advice'?"| Although the legislation regards home reversion schemes as property deals, the Financial Regulator did cover them in a consumer guide to equity release which was published in February.

Yet the industry consultative panel still criticised Ifsra's failure to highlight "anomalies" in the legal regime and urged its consumer director to "form and communicate a view" on the issue to policy makers and the public.

A spokeswoman for the Financial Regulator said it would support extending consumer credit laws to home reversion schemes and has outlined its views to the Department of Finance, but that it was not clear whether any new rules would fall under Ifsra's remit or would be part of a regulatory package for the property sector.