AMI’s May Mortgage Intermediary Census revealed 95 per cent of intermediaries were aware, or very aware of TCF, a 9 per cent rise from the August 2005 results, which showed 86 per cent of respondents were aware or very aware of TCF.
The research showed 47 per cent of intermediaries believed they had ‘wholly’ implemented TCF into their operations, while a further 41 per cent had partially adapted TCF into their operations. Only 6 per cent had failed to build TCF into their operations, dropping 10 per cent from the 2005 findings of 16 per cent. The number of firms that had not heard of TCF also decreasing, from 5 per cent to zero.
Rob Griffiths, associate director at AMI was pleased with the findings. He said: “It’s pleasing to see the levels of awareness of TCF rising throughout the broker community, with large numbers of firms having already conducted a TCF review. The fact that many firms have also acted upon these reviews by implementing changes to their businesses shows the intermediary sector has grasped the importance of TCF and is responding to the challenge.”
With the Financial Services Authority (FSA) set to publish its July TCF paper in the coming weeks, Griffiths added: “It is important firms continue to engage with the initiative. The papers will outline areas of good and bad practice and firms must continue to act on any specific TCF issues identified by their internal reviews.”
Peter O’Donovan, mortgage manager at Bestinvest, said: “Plenty of time has passed for intermediaries to have implemented TCF. If they haven’t made the changes now then they never will.”
