Adam Tyler, chief executive of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, said he had spoken to the Association of Short Term Lenders earlier this year to devise the bridging qualification.
Tyler said a specific bridging exam would complement the recently launched NACFB exam which will become compulsory for all commercial brokers in the next 12 months.
The NACFB exam already incorporates a section on bridging which Tyler said could be expanded.
Tyler said: “Everything we do is to keep the Financial Services Authority happy and the closer we can be to operating as though we are regulated the better.
“If we don’t make sure proper CPD and exams are part of our market then we’re leaving ourselves open to the FSA saying “hold on you’re not self-regulating”.”
He added that he had begun discussions with former ASTL chief executive Adrian Bloomfield and hoped to resume them with new chief exec Benson Hersch.
“There is the potential to have add-ons to our exam covering specialisms such as asset finance, short-term finance and invoice finance,” added Tyler.
“There’s not currently as much in the NACFB qualification on bridging as we want but the idea is to create a focused paper on short-term that springs from that baseline qualification. I understand the ASTL was in discussions with the IFS before Adrian left.”
Lenders were supportive of the idea.
Laurence Goodman, chief executive of Bridgebank Capital, said if there were a specialised bridging exam his staff would take it.
And he added: “I think it creates a layer of competency that outsiders can rely on. I’d get our staff to take it provided it was approved. None of us are too old to be improving our learning and competency.
“But it also keeps the regulator and other authorities at arm’s length. We can call ourselves experts then and tell regulators not to stick their noses in to what we’re doing because we can prove we’re maintaining a level of competence and professionalism.
“That is what the ASTL was set up to do initially but I think objectives of professionalism have been lost in the fog of everything else that’s happened in the past five years.”
Alan Cleary, managing director of Precise Mortgages, also backed the idea.
He said: “That acts as a powerful deterrent as well. The more barriers to entry you put up for people advising the less likely cowboys are to bother with playing in that market. It’s a strong message that we’re trying to clean the whole of the market up.”
And Richard Deacon, sales and marketing director of Masthaven, added: “I don’t think it can be a bad thing to bring in a specific exam for bridging.”
Tyler also revealed that Towergate has agreed to take the extra NACFB qualification, which costs £155 to sit, into account when calculating professional indemnity insurance.
The IFS confirmed preliminary discussions but declined to comment further and the ASTL did not respond to a request for comment.
