Mortgage Introducer (MI) revealed in December last year that the majority of the PMPA members were to leave and set-up their own group, the Association of Mortgage Packagers and Distributors (AMPD) over disagreements about the shares they own in PMPA’s lender, Unity Homeloans. However, one of the PMPA members informed MI that this issue was just the catalyst for what has been a long period of disagreement between the members about the running of PMPA.
The PMPA then made a dramatic u-turn by announcing none of the disgruntled members would be leaving and that the body would reform under a set of new objectives. These included members having equal equity stakes in the organisation and equal voting rights, and that the organisation would be based upon the principle of ‘not for profit’.
But John Mawdsley, director of The Mortgage Partnership, has told MI that the directors have now gone back on their word to create this ‘not for profit’ body and as a result at least 11 members will be leaving to form their own group, AMPD.
He said: "The directors of PMPA had made a statement to members yesterday which has resulted in them effectively reversing the commitment they had made to change the principles of the PMPA. The majority of the members will now leave.
"We need to move forward as quickly as possible to get our new body underway, which will be based on exactly the same principles that we were looking to implement in the PMPA."
Asked what impact this would have on the PMPA, Mawdsley said he was "ambivalent".
A statement by the directors of PMPA, said: "Despite our best endeavours we have been unable to resolve all of the issues recently raised by a number of PMPA members. As a result therefore it is likely that some current members will not move forward with PMPA into 2006. PMPA will continue to conduct business as usual with a number of existing and new members and we would like to take the opportunity to wish leaving members well and applaud their initiative in seeking to set up their own group.
"We recognise that some of the suggested changes to the operational structure of PMPA were well founded and a number of them will be adopted within the group moving forward. The core values and principals upon which PMPA was founded in July 2000 still remain fundamental to its continued professionalism and success. PMPA will continue to work closely with both lender and intermediary partner relationships and we are grateful for the continued support that both give to us."
