MT members seeking DA status will be charged £150 + VAT per month for each firm which covers one adviser, with £75 plus VAT for all additional members.
The AR proposition charges members £250 + VAT per month, also covering the first member with additional members charged a further £125 + VAT. The fees include a range of services from the compliance manual, regular updates, the annual audit and free sourcing system to the broker help desk, the panel of 40 lenders and assistance with the application for direct authorisation.
Packager and mortgage distributor, the Mortgage Times, (MT) said it expected ‘many individuals’ to either fail to meet the deadline for registration or just simply not have made up their minds in time.
To date, the FSA has only received 1,000 completed applications from firms for direct authorisation, with less than three weeks to go until the end of the discount period. As a result, MT has tailored its regulatory offering to allow brokers to progress from authorised representative to directly authorised with an incubation period to allow members to become familiar with the new procedures that are required by the FSA as an Appointed Representative (AR).
Chris May, director at MT, commented: “We are not looking to scaremonger brokers into joining our network as we cater for both routes. They can become an AR but also be working towards Direct Authorisation. As a broker I know this is very attractive as many might fail to meet the FSA deadline for Direct Authorisation but may not want to tie themselves in to a network for 6 or 12 months”.
