Those failing to qualify will no longer be able to advise on mortgages unless under supervision of a competent and qualified adviser.
Despite being encouraged by the fact that thousands of the remaining non-qualified advisers have registered to take their exams in the next few weeks, the Mortgage Board warns that those who register late - and then do not pass - may well run out of time to retake their papers before the end-December deadline.
Under the Board’s Fitness and Competence requirements, any adviser providing mortgage advice and a recommendation must have completed either the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP), or be FPC or CeFA qualified and have passed either the CeMAP ‘Bridge’ paper or the Mortgage Advice Qualification (MAQ) by 31 December 2002.
Latest figures show that nearly 62,000 advisers have registered with the Institute of Financial Services (ifs) for CeMAP or CeMAP 'Bridge' paper, and 25,370 of these have already qualified.
Separate statistics from the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland (CIOBS) for the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice show an increase to 6,998 total registrations with 2,720 completions to date. The CIOBS reports that 500 candidates are registered to take papers in September, with an increasing number of bookings for October.
The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has now received over 14,700 registrations for the MAQ - including 3500 within a single firm - with 9,114 having already qualified. Nearly 1900 candidates successfully completed the MAQ in July alone.
Overall, there are now over 80,000 individuals registered with the three institutes, of which 37,204 are qualified.
