Firms want individual registration to be brought in earlier, says PMS
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John Malone, executive chairman of PMS, says firms could start lobbying the regulator to implement the individual registration of brokers before 2013.
Speaking at a Mortgage Strategy & Regulation conference held in London by Infoline last week, Malone told the audience a number of firms feel the rules should take effect before 2013 and many could take their cause to the Financial Services Authority.
The regulator announced in Dec-ember that it would delay putting its approved persons regime for brokers and bank staff into practice until 2012/2013.
Malone says: “A number of organisations would like to see the rules implemented sooner rather than later.
“I’m sure a number of firms would be happy to go to the regu-lator and request that individual registration start sooner.”
He says some companies may offer to get the ball rolling by volunteering to begin introducing the rules earlier.
David Sheppard, managing director of Perception Finance, says it is important individual registration starts sooner rather than later because borrowers are not aware of what advice they are receiving when they ask a company’s branch for help.
But he adds: “It needs to be imple-mented across both the direct and intermediary channels.
“If some firms in the broker market start it earlier than direct lenders it could create more financial disparity.”
Malone also warned last week the number of brokers might fall to 8,000 by 2012 if the market continued as it is.
He says a number of factors could contribute to a reduction in the esti-mated 10,000 brokers now operating in the industry, including the imple-mentation of individual registra-tion, an ageing broker community and the cost of personal indemnity insurance.
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