Loan sector may be frozen out of standards board
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The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries director Robert Sinclair is concerned the mortgage industry will not have any representation on the future Professional Standards Board.
The FSA proposed in its mortgage market review and retail distribution review papers that the industry should establish a board for intermediaries to create a code of ethics and uphold professional standards. But Sinclair says that due to the sheer number of investment advisers, there would be no room on the board for mortgage advisers to be represented.
Speaking at a Money Marketing round table event last week, Sinclair said: “If a Professional Standards Board is going to be put together, there will be no mortgage representation on that board because it has to reflect 95,000 people in the investment world and 15,000 in the mortgage world and we will not have gravitas or traction in that structure.”
Sinclair also questioned whether there was any need for a Professional Standards Board outside the regulator, which he said should take on these responsibilities.
Speaking at the round table, Platform sales and proposition director Lee Gladwell said: “I do not think the Professional Standards Board has to be the mechanism but the things it is trying to do are the big issues for the industry.”
Chartered Insurance Institute’s Society of Mortgage Professionals chief executive Richard Fox said: “Should brokers be a part of the Professional Standards Board? Of course, they should be, as should consumer representatives.”
An FSA spokeswoman says: “The Professional Standards Board is being consulted on at the moment.”
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