In a meeting with the FSA held last week, the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) said the regulator revealed it would expect to walk into any firm and be given immediate access to management information and documentation including how many products have been sold; fees charged; capital adequacy data; complaints records; training and competency reports; procedure records and financial reports.
Chris Cummings, director of AMI, said the FSA indicated it would recognise a good firm by how quickly it had this information to hand.
He said: “There has never been a greater need for brokers to have better documentation. In our industry the majority of firms are small and are not geared up to have information at their disposal.
“The FSA should take into consideration that these firms may need more time than the larger firms it is used to dealing with.”
Simon Chalk, mortgage planner at Mortgage Portfolio Services, commented: “This could be a burden for one-man band firms. I would panic a bit if the FSA wanted instant information on financial reports as these would be managed by an accountant and could take weeks and weeks to get hold of.”
“But, on the other hand, a well-run business would have management information to hand as it would need this for managerial purposes anyway,” Chalk added.
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesman at the FSA, said: “When we make our visits we are generally interested in how firms are meeting our requirements.
“It’s not a case of kicking the door down and saying ‘I want that file on so and so right now’. But firms need to have good records in place for their own interests also.”
