When asked “Do you plan to become Authorised Direct or take the AR route” 64% of respondents were not sure and 28% said they would become ARs, with only 8% clear that they would go direct.
Simon Hood, Chief Executive of Select & Protect commented, “There seems to be a mixture of confusion and apathy with regards to this impending regulation. This is worrying but borne out by the fact that 78% of respondents felt that the FSA had been ineffective in its communication, but at the same time 67% admitted that they had not read the consultation papers!
“While October 2004 may seem a long way off advisers need to consider their position well in advance and get the appropriate application to the FSA by April 2004. Failure to do so could result in them being unauthorised by October 2004 due to the number of applications to be vetted. So the message is address the issue now.”
Select & Protect contacted in the region of 2,500 mortgage and financial advisers relating to the impending regulation. Other findings were:
• 91% were not current members of the GISC;
• 64% of advisers arranged up to ten mortgages per month;
• only 1% of advisers had a take up rate in excess of 55% for MPPI; with 49% selling MPPI to between 11–25% of their clients;
• when asked about the potential for long term fixed rate mortgages opinion was divided:- Yes 46% and No 54%; and
• 66% of advisers were unconcerned about higher income multiples.
