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Trade body seeks broker opinion before finalising future strategy

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  • 08/05/2002
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NAMBA questionnaire aims to discover what advisers want from a trade body

Around 15,000 mortgage advisers are to be questioned by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and Advisers (NAMBA) in a bid to establish what advisers want from a trade body.

A questionnaire, designed to identify the main views and concerns of advisers, is to be emailed over the next week to both existing and potential members of the body.

NAMBA has received criticism for its delayed launch since forming last year. It hopes this research will help guide its future strategy and make sure that, when it officially launches, it will be tuned in to its members’ needs.

Charles Gooding, chairman of NAMBA’s steering committee, said: ‘We are launched in a sense, but we need to find out what advisers want from a body before we can move on. We want to be the voice of advisers. There is no point in the steering committee airing its opinions without knowing the real views of advisers.’

The body hopes the research will help boost its image. NAMBA got off to a controversial start when its chief executive was revealed as Julian Jennings, who was involved with Century Mortgages, which was closed down by the DTI for compliance failure. Jennings has since taken a back seat and a new steering committee, including Mark Mountenay, managing director of Premier Mortgage Management and Stephen Atkins, compliance services director at Mortgage Next, has taken over the reins.

Gooding said: ‘No disrespect to Julian Jennings because he was the first person to believe in NAMBA, but we now have people on the steering committee who have grass roots’ experience, who are well respected in the industry and who can provide advisers with the best support. The only way we can make sure advisers’ concerns are noticed and acted upon, is if they have a body that understands what their concerns are and can voice those concerns in front of the regulator.’

NAMBA has access to a number of databases ‘ primarily including mortgage brokers in addition to some IFAs ‘ which it will use to aid distribution of the questionnaire.

The five questions NAMBA will ask advisers are:

• What do you consider to be the biggest threat to your business from the Treasury’s proposals for regulating mortgages?

• If the regulation ‘ as proposed ‘ takes effect, what changes do you envisage will be necessary for your business to survive?

• How familiar are you with current FSA regulation of financial services?

• Would you welcome and support an independent professional representative body to promote your interests and to act as a voice for brokers generally?

• What would you regard as sufficiently ‘independent’ for the purposes of achieving such a body?


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