The Early Warning System facility allows compliance officers to specify certain case criteria to be monitored by the Home Buyer System, and then to be emailed or sent a text message each time such a case is put onto the system.
The facility allows compliance officers to respond immediately to any new concerns being flagged up by the FSA, and proactively manage any risks arising within their own organisation.
For example, during its trial period, the Early Warning System was programmed to flag up every case where an employed person was being advised to self certify their income. Other examples could be where large proportions of a particular adviser’s cases are self certification of income combined with sub prime products.
With a comprehensive overview of this sort of activity, the compliance officer can see where these scenarios are being repeated most frequently and take steps to investigate. The warnings are flagged up at an early stage of the advice and sales process which allows the compliance officer to intervene to safeguard the best interests of the customer.
Richard Angliss, director of Home Buyer Systems said: “A sales process and compliance software system that simply gathers historical information is not really doing the job properly. We have always been aware that the best MGI sales and compliance system must be based on managing potential risks proactively, and this can only be done effectively if there is a facility to intervene in the process before the transaction has been completed and it is too late.
"The Home Buyer System is very flexible so that we were able to develop the idea of an early warning system, trial it in the field, and get it to market quickly in response to the anticipated demand. In view of the FSA’s current concerns about adequate systems and controls, we expect the Early Warning System to be taken up rapidly by the majority of our existing customers and also generate a lot of new enquiries.”
Bill Warren, compliance director of Complete, trialed the Home Buyer Early Warning System: “The beauty of the Early Warning System is its adaptability, and the power of the individual compliance officer to set the criteria that will trigger the warning. Each firm can have its own, bespoke Early Warning System that suits the individual profile of the business and its customers.
"As new areas of concern are voiced by the FSA, or when a compliance officer starts to spot a new area of potential risk, the system can be adapted without waiting a long time while new software is developed. I believe that one of the Early Warning System’s major benefits will be in providing proof that a firm is actively managing the particular regulatory risks that they face."
