Around 1.7m borrowers have been supported by the government’s Mortgage Charter, the Financial Conduct Authority figures reveal.

The FCA data shows that around 149,000 mortgages have temporarily reduced monthly payments via the new FCA rules.

Monthly payments on around 214,000 mortgages were reduced as people switched to temporarily paying interest-only or extended their mortgage term. This represents around 2.6% of regulated mortgage contracts.

Of those who extended their mortgage term, 547 went to reverse this. The FCA says this suggests borrowers looking for a temporary cut in payments are more likely to opt for a period on interest-only.

The latest figures show that 159 properties were repossessed within the 12 months of missing the first payment.

Firms report these were for customer-driven reasons, for example voluntary possessions or abandoned/vacant properties.

Under the Charter, lenders agreed to provide a number of options to help struggling borrowers to reduce payments for a respite period.

The FCA says that some of these forbearance measures would also have been offered under lenders’ normal business policy.

It is therefore not possible to completely isolate actions undertaken through the Charter.