The need for individual registration has not gone away; in fact some might argue that with the growth of the mortgage market and expansion of the intermediated mortgage sector that the need for a form of individual registration is higher than ever.
The key imperative is the ability to track a disreputable broker. While the reputation of mortgage brokers as a whole appears to be rising amongst the general public, it only takes one or two to act in a way that disadvantages the customer for it to become widely publicised and damage the whole sector.
At the moment, it is too easy for a broker that has been struck off by their network or lenders to hide. Most networks will carry out very stringent tests and take up references for every broker and firm that joins it, but this is not universal and there is no way for the borrower or other networks to check this data.
If the FCA is not in a position to implement this, maybe it is something that our trade bodies could do? To be of value however, there are a few things that any system would require: Key of these is that it will need to include all mortgage advisers including employed bank staff and those directly authorised; the information would also need to be factual, reliable and up-to-date.
It will be keeping the information up-to-date that is likely to prove the biggest challenge for anybody taking on the mantle. As soon as any system became out-of-date and therefore unreliable, it would lose its credibility almost instantly.
The other key question is who would be able to access this information? Of course lenders, networks and broker firms will need to be able to check it, but to be truly effective it will need to be accessible for borrowers perhaps awarding a kite mark for every broker that is approved and registered as a sign that the borrower can have confidence in that adviser.
Such a database is long overdue, but the need for such a system continues to grow. It is time the industry banded together to create what we have all been crying out for for such a long time.
Toni Smith is sales operations director at First Complete
