Prepare for CMCs to target mortgage industry once PPI is done – Promise

by: Steve Walker, managing director of Promise Specialist Lending
  • 16/11/2017
  • 0
Prepare for CMCs to target mortgage industry once PPI is done – Promise
According to reports payment protection insurance (PPI) claims soared in the first half of 2017, hitting a three-year high. At first glance this seems almost impossible.

After all of this time how can a record number of people suddenly realise they have payment protection insurance and decide now is the time to do something about it? It doesn’t add up.

Until, that is, you factor in claims management companies (CMCs). Aware that the government would be implementing a deadline (something which it did later in the year) these firms obviously decided they needed to go at this full force.

It will not be long before their bread and butter business is taken away from them so before finding another industry to leech off they clearly need to bleed this one dry.

Now the worry of course surrounds where they will move to next and, according to recent reports, one contender seems to be the mortgage industry.

 

Be prepared for fishing trips

The most concerning thing about mis-selling claims is that the Ombudsman’s accepted approach is normally that brokers should prove their innocence with less onus on the consumer to prove the broker’s guilt.

In a regulated industry that seems fair enough but if brokers want to guard against future claims of mis-selling they should take a fresh look at their sales process.

A happy customer can easily become unhappy when coerced with the promise of big cash payouts; the PPI fiasco is evidence of this.

If the future FCA regulation of claims companies doesn’t stop CMCs going on fishing trips to “create” complaints, brokers need to be prepared now.

 

Evidence makes sense

Next year it will be free and easier for consumers to request a copy of the data you hold on them. Keep this in mind when it comes to evidencing your sales process.

If you can’t prove it – it never happened.

Scripts, disclosure letters, call recordings, fact-finds and suitability letters are just a few of the tools to use every time.

Evidencing what you did is important but evidencing why you did it is vital too, so make sure you have research on file which fully justifies your advice. For many brokers the reason why you offered a remortgage versus a second charge should spring to mind.

I remember the words of my maths teacher – “show your workings Walker”. At the time I couldn’t see the point if I was getting to the right answer anyway. Now it makes perfect sense.

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