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FSA: Work to define advice for internet sales underway
Speaking at the Manchester Mortgage Business Expo, the FSA told delegates that more work still needs to be done to clarify the position of advice and internet sales in the MMR.
FSA manager of mortgage policy Lynda Blackwell, said: “You can have an interactive dialogue that is not part of the sales process but what’s been called the “window shopping” stage where the consumer is simply doing nothing more than collecting factual statements.
“We need to be a lot clearer where we go with our policy statement on that because there is a very clear distinction between information-only and regulative advice.”
Blackwell told delegates that there has also been some debate over post-contract variations.
She said: “AMI has talked about calls for lenders to offer a third way, so not just the two options of advised sales and execution-only but also a means of incorporating mortgage transactions post contract variations.”
“These are transactions where lenders post a range of administrative changes such as converting the borrower from interest-only to capital and repayment.
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“At the moment those post contract variations are usually done on a non-advised basis. However, under our proposals, most of those transactions would require advice where there is an interaction with the borrower.”