Questions over FSA ban on broker for high pressure sales

14 December 2009

The story on Mortgage Strategy Online last week about a broker being banned for using high pressure sales tactics was curious in several ways.
First, there appears to be an allegation of fraud. This surely requires a legal sanction but none is indicated.

Was the evidence too flimsy? If that is the case there must be a human rights issue in terms of being judged and convicted on too little evidence.
The second strange aspect of the case concerns the business model involved.

I’ve never been a fan of high pressure selling but unless the law has been broken surely any sanction must involve the FSA taking a moral stance. Who’s to say that the regulator’s moral judgement is better than anyone else’s?

So the banned adviser is supposedly better out of the industry than in but on the information provided I am concerned about the reasoning behind this judgement.

I agree that subterfuge has no place in this industry but while I dislike the technique I’m not sure high pressure selling is a definable wrong. And what is high pressure anyway? Who defines the limit? It seems the answer to the second question is simple - the FSA.

On this basis I guess we should not be surprised that there is a creeping move towards retrospective judgement from those sitting in ivory towers who answer to nobody.

It’s fine to be worried if you’ve done something wrong but it’s strange to be worried because you adopt a business model that proves to be unacceptable to the FSA.

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