According to Cherry, discussions centred around how consumers would get through interest rate rises, whether it was too “blunt” of an instrument to combat inflation and if they were unfairly punishing particular groups of people.
Discussions also centred around whether broader actions to extinguish demand, such as changing tax rates, considering public spending cuts, or having a regulatory clampdown on consumer credit, rather than interest rate rises, would be more effective.
Another popular topic was a client knocking down their own house, examining the lenders view on the action as destroying their security and whether the client building a home with bigger and higher value was valid.
A thread talking about brokers switching to self-employed was also popular. The discussion centred around possible options and the pros and cons.
Other popular topics included product withdrawals and repricing, questions around fee charging and documentation specifically with Consumer Duty in mind.
Questions around Consumer Duty
Donna Hopton, director at Cherry, said: “Advisers like and trust the Cherry broker forum because they know they can safely share their ideas and irritations with intermediary colleagues across the industry.
“I’m not surprised during these testing times that increasing numbers of brokers are using the Cherry forum for support, sharing business practices as well as occasionally letting off steam.”
She added: “As well as the topics mentioned, it won’t be shock to hear that the subject of Consumer Duty repeatedly came up in many different threads during July.
“Although the new regulation is now finally upon us, I’d anticipate this situation continuing over the next few months as brokers, networks and lenders look to find their feet with the new regime. The question of whether Consumer Duty will be more successful than Treating Customers Fairly has been raised.”
