The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) said a lot of its members have experienced problems on the FSA’s system which intermediaries have to use to submit their RMAR reports.
AMI said the major reason for this was due to the regulator’s software using US notation. For example, when keying in 27/10 for 27 October, the system will not accept this.
Chris Cummings, director-general of AMI, said: “This is confusing a lot of people. If you have figured out that the system is using US notation, then it’s not a problem. But if you don’t know, it is an annoyance and is delaying the process.”
The FSA has admitted to the oversight and said as soon as it was made aware of the problem it was resolved. Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesperson at the FSA, said: “Dates can now be entered using the British numerical system.”
However, Mortgage Introducer was also contacted by frustrated firms saying they could not submit their reports because the site had been down.
Bill Warren, director of The Complete Network, said: “Both myself and a colleague have been trying all day to get onto the RMAR reporting site but it’s been down.
“I’m in Bristol and he’s in Southampton so this is obviously not an isolated case. This is very frustrating when we’re so close to the deadline.”
Gordon-Walker said the site may have been down momentarily but it was inevitable all systems experience some problems.
London-based sole broker Roy New commented: “I couldn’t even get a clear answer out of the regulator about what start date they want the accounts to be from as my accounts are a year behind. I guess I’ll find out next week when I fill in my report.”
