You can take another look at the week’s news and we’ll round up the stand-out, most thought-provoking or unmissable comments posted after stories or sent straight through to the editor.
Comment any time on the Mortgage Solutions website and you could feature in next week’s Mortgage Mutterings.
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Expo 2010: FSA to limit broker role in checking affordability
Mortgage Solutions | 12 Nov 2010 | 08:34
Kay McLellan
What Happened To ‘Best’ Advice
Aren’t proof of identity, proof of income and needs and wants (suitability) already required ‘tests’ for the broker of every mortgage applicant? Or, have I been on a different planet?
John Grant
15 Nov 2010 | 09:39
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MMR: Fee roll-up may need double KFI
Mortgage Solutions | 16 Nov 2010 | 16:45
Vicky Hartley
Costs of fees – or not?
Options: Add fee amount to amount applied for, add fee to mortgage and keep the amount in your highest earning savings offsetting interest charged – maybe another KFI for each of those options?
ACC
Comment 2
16 Nov 2010 | 19:04
FSA please move over
Am I missing something here or isn’t this just a great example of the FSA ‘guilding a lily’? Please, just move over and let the broker do what they are trained, qualified and compliance checked to do… advise the client. Stop micro managing every little bit of every little detail and deal with the weighty matters which are crippling the UK economy i.e. getting lenders lending for a start. Then educate the public that they need to beware, take care and be certain about the financial decisions they make in respect of their mortgages. Why? Because ultimately they should be solely responsible for the loan repayments once the lenders has agreed the loan meets affordability and the adviser has made the appropriate reccommendation.
Chris Ridgeway
16 Nov 2010 | 21:43
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MMR: FSA decides against all-advised mortgage market
Mortgage Solutions | 16 Nov 2010 | 13:02
IFAonline
Is this good or bad?
I think that the worst aspect of this is that they have a problem with forcing clients down an advised route, but not with lenders encouraging borrowers down a non-advised route through their distribution strategies. Furthermore, I still don’t grasp why the internet should be seen as some king of regulation-free zone. How is it different when there is no human interaction at all? That makes it more dangerous, not less so. Good to hear that rules are being tightened for lender sales though. It remains to be seen whether they would be policed or not.
Stuart Duncan
16 Nov 2010 | 14:53
Comment 2
FSA decides against all-advised mortgage market
I have lost track. Am I at level 3 with MAQ and ER1 or do I need to take another mortgage exam? Mortgages are hardly rocket science and any course will be padded out with superfluous rubbish. As for the FSA now distinguishing between “most suitable” and “client’s best interest”, will their ruminations on semantics make any difference whatsoever to the advice? The FSA seems to think so but that’s because they live on a different planet to mortgage advisers and their prospective clients and have nothing better to do.
Bill Wells
16 Nov 2010 | 17:22
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Which? customers can opt to pay for “free” service
Mortgage Solutions | 17 Nov 2010 | 09:58
Mortgage Solutions
“Which” Hunt?
I have not read an article that has incensed me more than this one, for a very long time. We have had years of the Which? report, ripping away at the adviser model saying that advice is not free and impartial and that commission is bad! Now they are going down the route, which they have campaigned against for so long stating that the advice service is “free” and that the advisers are salaried. Any commissions will be rebated, where a client opts to pay a fee but will be kept if they don’t to pay for the service. How can this be free? the answer is it can’t. “It’s an Equitable Life Henry!” We had all this nonsense with the non commission earning advisers from Equitable life but who paid for the salary, bonuses, pensions, life cover and other benefits? Why, the client of course!
If Which? want to provide a truly free service then they should not take any fee from any member, family or friends and rebate all commissions to the applicants. Oh, they should not increase the subscriptions for membership either as surely this would mean that the service is not free either.
I hope the FSA and the trading standards are looking at this and will move to stop this sanctimonious self serving organisation from hoodwinking its members and the public in this way. However, I very much doubt whether the clear and honest representations to the consumer is that high on the agenda these days.
Chris Burden
17 Nov 2010 | 11:10
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Lloyds: Greater professionalism key for mortgage advisers
Mortgage Solutions | 18 Nov 2010 | 09:02
Vicky Hartley
Banks and TCF?
I agree with all the comments made so far, and could add many more, but we have all heard them. Bank staff tell me that they are constantly chasing targets to sell, so TCF seems to out of the window. Has anyone heard that they also sell overpriced and sometimes inadequate and inappropriate financial services just to meet targets?
Mr Walsh, invite one or more of us to show you how it should be done, come on a few appointments with us, watch, listen and then withdraw your comments and replace with hard facts! Thats your target to meet!
John Kaye
18 Nov 2010 | 20:08
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Have a great weekend.
The Mortgage Solutions team
