Harley’s departure has left a void within the FSA’s mortgage division at a critical point in the consultation period of the Mortgage Market Review and has left both brokers and trade bodies disenchanted.
Privately senior figures from across the industry are dismayed that Harley was allowed to move so soon after Lesley Titcomb, now chief operating officer at the FSA, left the mortgage division, and to move at such a crucial juncture within the consultation process.
The MMR is viewed as a make or break time for the industry and brokers are becoming increasingly worried about their own futures with many fearing that team changes at the FSA’s mortgage division will disrupt the consultation period. The FSA’s third consultation paper on the MMR which will focus on distribution is due this autumn.
The FSA confirmed this morning that Lynda Blackwell had been appointed acting head of mortgage policy “while a successor for Ed Harley is found”.
A spokeswoman for the FSA said: “To clarify, the team is exactly the same and the FSA remains committed to its mortgage objectives.
“While Ed has taken on a new role within the FSA, the team is led by director Sheila Nicoll, with David Geale leading the sector team for mortgages and Lynda Blackwell acting in Ed’s role.”
Although both Nicoll and Geale have worked on the MMR since its inception it was little comfort for brokers as Titcomb was the original MMR project sponsor and Harley the project manager. The project sponsor writes the terms of reference, holds people in project to account, and has to approve the outcomes; the project manager oversees the project on the sponsor’s behalf. Both roles will now be held by others.
Gemma Harle, managing director, at network Tenet Lime, said Harley’s departure was “very unsettling”.
She said: “The FSA chopping and changing its key personnel is very unsettling in terms of seeing things through – it’s making consistency hard.
“I think this latest move just adds to the whole uncertainty on where the FSA is going and what its focus is.
“There needs to be much more of a consistent approach on the MMR and they are not going to get that if they keep changing their key personnel.”
Fahim Antonaides, group director of Mortgage Centre IFA, said the lack of an announcement on who would replace Harley was odd and it seemed “there may be more to this than meets the eye”.
He told Mortgage Introducer: “If it was simple career progression for Harley, it seems odd that it would have happened in such a way that there’s no permanent replacement.
“Surely they’d have lined up someone to take his place?
“I wonder if it’s to do with fact that the FSA is keen to tidy up the mortgage market and this personnel change is to bring in a new culture, focused more harshly on how the mortgage sector is regulated and monitored. A fresh pair of eyes with possibly a harder approach. Either that, or they’re bureaucratic and disorganised.”
Matt Fleming-Duffy, director at Abacus Financial, said it was a shame to lose Ed Harley’s experience of the MMR at such a serious point in time.
He said: “I think the FSA is doing a tricky job – they’re being loosely dismantled at the moment and I’m not surprised that these sorts of things are going on and I’m sure will go on in the future.
“The FSA is tackling some weighty subjects in the MMR and it’s crucial for firms like ours that these issues are properly handled. While it’s the nature of the beast that people will move on, I would think key personnel changes like this will herald possibly not the greatest results you’d hope for.”
And he added: “I’d hope for continuity, particularly with reference to personnel, and that someone would see the MMR through from cradle to grave. But I think we’ll see more of this change as the FSA controls are passed to the Bank of England – that’s the danger of having big changes at the regulator at the same time as big changes to the market.”
Andrew Montlake, director at Coreco, agreed with Fleming-Duffy.
“I think there was always going to be this kind of issue when you’re changing the whole basis of an organisation,” he said. “It’s one of the dangers involved, that there is a period of time when people are unclear on the leadership or direction that they’re taking. We can only hope this doesn’t interrupt the day to day running of the MMR.”
