The revelation comes from the British Property Federation, which attended meetings with the Treasury and Financial Services Authority at that time.
Ian Fletcher, BPF director of policy, said: "Many lenders simply threw money at buy-to-let borrowers during the boom, without sufficient checks on who they were lending to or what they were lending for.
"The BPF is now calling for a crackdown on all buy-to-let mortgages and property investment clubs, saying they should be regulated by the FSA.
Currently, buy-to-let mortgages are treated as business loans, whilst thousands of amateur landlords have been bankrupted after buying through property clubs
