Although not able to formally approve Financial Promotions, Lemon Squeezy’s review service is able to pinpoint areas of potential non-compliance and alert the firm on what action they need to take. Stuart Wilson, founding director of Lemon Squeezy, was certain the service would benefit the broker community: “In a recent study we conducted of websites, we found that at least one in three were non-compliant. The main problems we came across time and again are to do with ‘due prominence’ and missing risk warnings, particularly on sites and pages dedicated to the non-conforming market.”
Wilson explained many firms had neglected to update their websites after ‘Mortgage Day’, while others had failed to make appropriate changes to their site content. He argued Financial Promotions would once again be a key focus for the FSA. “At last year’s Mortgage Business Expo in London, the Financial Promotions team from the FSA highlighted internet advertising as a key ‘theme’ for 2006. It is very concerned at the level of non-compliant Financial Promotions appearing on the internet. All firms that have a website presence should be checking and double-checking their content to satisfy themselves that it is compliant,” he said.
Wilson added that the web review service was designed to provide peace of mind to brokers and highlight any potential areas of non-compliance, a service James Carter, IFA at Virtue Financial, was sure would prove popular amongst brokers.
He said: “I had a long hard slog to get my website through compliance with many small changes needing to be made, so if they can help then that’s great. The cost of the service would be interesting.”
