The service offers mortgage brokers and financial service providers the opportunity to confirm they have put in place the appropriate documented procedures to achieve compliance and give them ‘real life evidence’ to show they are implementing the theory, in practice.
The firm said whether brokers and financial service providers have interpreted the FSA regulations in-house or with external assistance, the benefit of this independent interim compliance audit, prior to a possible FSA visit could make the difference between a clean bill of health and having some awkward questions to answer.
The service encompasses live situations including mystery shopping; review of random customer files; validation and implementation of regulated procedures and review of staff competence strategy.
Tony Worthy, managing director of Compliancy Services, said: “For companies with December year ends or those coinciding with the end of the tax year, sign-off on company accounts will be a primary focus.
“There remain a large number of financial service providers and mortgage brokers that have yet to adhere to the commitments they made in their initial application for FSA authorisation.”
But Kevin Morgan, managing director of Consilium Financial Planning, commented: “This is not something I’d use. As long as our files are accurate and show the appropriate advice was given to clients, what else needs to be done? It’s not rocket science.
“There may be some brokers that need their hands holding but for the majority they can go to the various FSA workshops on compliance where you can get guidance straight from the horse’s mouth, and it would probably be a lot cheaper.”
