Two more mortgage brokers have been fined by the City watchdog as it continues to increase its scrutiny of poor practices in the sector. The two penalties took total fines it has levied this year on the industry to £2.6m ($4.5m).

The Financial Services Authority said on Thursday it had fined Orchid Financial, a Doncaster-based broker, £34,500 for exposing customers to the dangers of being sold an unsuitable mortgage. In a separate case, it announced it had fined two directors from Abbey Mortgages of Bexleyheath £30,000 each for failures that put financially vulnerable customers at risk.

The two are the latest in a series of actions this year, mainly against mortgage brokers, which the regulator hopes will serve as a warning to all mortgage companies to review their ­processes.

Orchid's fine was the result of an FSA examination, covering a number of companies, into the quality of advice brokers provided to borrowers. The regulator said Orchid failed to obtain and record all necessary information, including financial data, on its clients. It also monitored the activity of its mortgage advisers by the volume of cases they had dealt with rather than the quality of the advice given.

One trainee adviser had recommended risky interest-only mortgages to at least seven customers who appeared to have a cautious attitude to risk.

However, it emerged the adviser had been ticking the wrong box in the risk section rather than checking the customer's true risk appetite.

Jonathan Phelan, the head of retail enforcement at the FSA, said: "This fine sends out a clear message to brokers that their advice must be of good quality."

The regulator also censured Abbey Mortgages but did not fine it because it could not afford the suggested £50,000 penalty. But its directors, William John Evans and Gary Howe, will each pay £30,000 for failing to check whether their customers had provided them with accurate information on a series of self-certified mortgages.

In the final notice that accompanies the fine, the FSA said the broker did not carry out straightforward checks that any "reasonable person" would have considered into the accuracy of customers' information.

"These failings demonstrate a lack of competence on behalf of the firm," it said.

Among the examples found by the FSA was a case where a customer requested a repayment mortgage but was recommended and provided with an interest-only loan.