With the second anniversary of statutory regulation approaching, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has taken a tougher stance on clamping down on rogue firms.
Stephen Bland, director of small firms at the FSA, said in a speech to the Compliance Institute this week, firms had until March 2007 to ensure they were fully compliant with ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ (TCF).
He said: “We’ve seen some good examples where senior management have already started to demonstrate a real desire to embed TCF as a behavioural and cultural change throughout their business. But there remain too many instances where senior management have yet to deliver improvements further down the organisation, and are therefore yet to deliver benefits to consumers in areas such as disclosure and product design.”
Richard Fox, chief executive of the Society of Mortgage Professionals, believed a degree of complacency had entered the market and said many firms could get caught out by the FSA’s tougher line.
He said: “The record of the mortgage industry over the past few years has been amazing, contributing in no small way to the economic success that has marked the period. But it has been made clear that some firms have now overstayed their welcome in the last-chance saloon and the FSA is open in saying in future it will be making more use of its disciplinary processes.”
Tony Jones, managing director at Pink Home Loans, also believed complacency was a problem.
“I think there’s a feeling among some directly authorised brokers that they are too small for the FSA to look at. However, it’s nearly two years since regulation came in and firms have had enough time to adjust, so the noises the FSA has been making say it is now coming after them.”
