CAAMP is now responding to new regulations introduced by the government for its anti-spam legislation, calling for tweaks that would better protect the "simple referrals" brokers depend on.
CAAMP is now responding to new regulations introduced by the government for its anti-spam legislation, calling for tweaks that would better protect the "simple referrals" brokers depend on.
“This is a very important piece of legislation for mortgage brokers and other small business people,” says Jim Murphy, president and CEO of CAAMP. “The original draft regulations would have severely restricted the use of ‘simple referral’ emails/communication. (But)The revised regulations allow for such communication albeit within a certain framework. It is a major improvement.”
Early last month the federal government introduced revised regs for that key piece of legislation meant to clamp down on email and other electronic junk mail.
The association is now responding to those tweaks and calling for more, especially on the subject of simple referrals.
"Such a concept (simple referrals) is common in the mortgage brokerage industry," writes Murphy, in a letter to the director of security and privacy branch. "CAAMP accepts that in keeping with the spirit of the legislation, there should be rules governing how such a concept works in practice."
WhilenCAAMP believes that the proposed regulation finds the right balance in allowing for one commercial message to be forwarded following any referral that has an existing business, non-business, family or personal relationship, it wants to see "the allowed single contact" increased to two.
The regulations make clear the need to provide a mechanism for people to be able to withdraw their consent, but Murphy argues that giving consumers that mechanism is already common practice for brokers.
His letter, dated Friday,Feb. 1, also delves into two other key areas of the proposed regs.
As a whole, the framework is meant to combat spam and other related electronic threats in the country and to provide relief to businesses through targeted exemptions where the broad application of the Act would otherwise impede business activities that are not within the intended scope of the legislation.
The anti-spam legislation is designed to encourage the growth of electronic commerce by ensuring confidence and trust in the online marketplace. To do so, the Act prohibits damaging and deceptive spam, spyware, malicious code, botnets, and other related network threats.
The industry's standards of practice don't pose that kind of threat, say brokers, at the same time pointing to the continuing need to communicate electronically with prospective clients.
“Referrals and establishing business relationships are extremely important to mortgage brokers,” Murphy points out. “CAAMP wants to make sure that this vital component of small business marketing is maintained and not penalized.”
