The research carried out by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) revealed that 71% of lenders and 74% of brokers were concerned lending would be affected.
But panellists at the Financial Services Expo in London voiced their frustrations over the headlines in IMLA’s press statement.
Nationwide’s managing director for intermediary sales Ian Andrew said: “Quite frankly I don’t think it’s representative. It’s talking about a high proportion of brokers and a high proportion of lenders who are worried are about the implications of the directive. I think it will pass with the minimal of fuss. It feels like MMR-lite to me.”
He added: “I’m sure that Nationwide like every other lender will have the system changes made in plenty of time for the regulatory deadline. I think headlines like the IMLA press release are quite unhelpful.”
Louisa Sedgewick, head of intermediary distribution at Leeds Building Society, questioned the relevance of the research. “The problem is that the questionnaire was sent out before anyone had started any work on the MCD so it was all blown up out of proportion,” she said. “I think because it is just a lot of technical differences on systems and recognising whether it is ESIS [European Standardised Information Sheet] or KFI Plus there isn’t a great deal to do once everything is in place on the system.”
The deadline for firms to implement the changes brought about by the MCD is 21 March 2016 but the regulator is allowing lenders to begin introducing their system and disclosure changes from 21 September to reduce the impact on the consumer. Applications which are in the lender’s pipeline and do not complete before the March deadline will have to be resold under the new regime.
