The latest voices to engage in the MMR debate are the FCA themselves with its recently released MMR readiness survey which does exactly what it says on the tin and asks brokers and lenders how ready they are.
It would seem that, for most firms at least, preparations are well in hand and we might not expect thousands of advisory firms to go ‘offline’ on April 26th having been unable to put the necessary changes in place.
Having said this, I was rather concerned to see some of the headline figures bandied about from the survey which suggest nearly one in ten firms are planning to up sticks and leave the mortgage market entirely prior to the MMR being introduced. Call me slow on the uptake but I have never viewed the MMR as ‘cliff edge’ type regulation for firms whereby they would have to stop their mortgage car completely rather than drive it cluelessly over the edge.
However, delving further into the results of the survey it would seem that the majority of those firms looking to leave their mortgage authorisation behind are in fact, what we might term, mortgage ‘dabblers’ who are writing fewer than 100 cases a year. Fair enough you might say then, perhaps there is little point them putting in the work to comply with the MMR if it is a small amount of their overall business volumes.
To my mind now is certainly not the time to be leaving the mortgage market and there are businesses like ourselves who will be able to help and support firms through this transition. It will take some work but there is really no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
If you are contemplating an industry exit then please seek out the support and direction you need – the MMR will mean some change to your business however there is still time to get up to speed and make the deadline. With the market responding positively, and demand for mortgage advice growing every day, you really have ‘to be in it to win it’.
Richard Adams is managing director of Stonebridge Group
