The total number of lenders supporting the initiative is now 26, spread across 37 intermediary brands, which include Rooftop, GMAC-RFC, Accord, and Alliance & Leicester.
The free website is dedicated to providing brokers with information on ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ (TCF) and is aimed at helping brokers meet the FSA’s March and December 2008 deadlines for implementing TCF into their businesses. The site includes independently written ‘plain English’ guides on TCF, checklists and downloadable tips and tools.
Michael Coogan, director-general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said: “We felt it was important for lenders to engage with brokers without telling them how to do their business. We’re keen to reinforce good quality advice and the site is a place to focus the industry as a whole. The key thing is to take up the message that TCF is an agenda and if brokers don’t embed it in their business, they will be in real trouble. Uncertainty is going to increase with principles-based regulation, that’s why it’s important for brokers to know where they can find information.”
Linda Will, managing director of Accord, said: “Brokers need to be reached on TCF, as there is a general inability to grasp the principle. As an intermediary lender, we have a responsibility to educate the broker. The 18 lenders now have a responsibility to sell it to the broker and they will be inundated with information. They can’t say they don’t have the tools now and hopefully people will realise it’s not that hard.”
get the daily news delivered to your inbox
find the latest industry jobs
register for the next forum
