As exclusively revealed in Mortgage Introducer Optoma launched its own insurance panel Opticover two weeks ago but the launch happened before Direct Protect was aware their relationship with Optoma had been terminated.
Matthew Bright, managing director of Optoma, accused Direct Protect of sending four recruitment mailings to members of Optoma’s mortgage club over the last six months, despite repeated requests to stop.
Bright said: “We were left with no option but to set up Opticover.”
Darren Smith, operations director for network divisions at Direct Protect, expressed surprise at Bright’s accusation and denied any deliberate policy of targeting Optoma members.
He said: “We were aware from their marketing literature that Optoma had set up Opticover though as far we are concerned we still have an arrangement with them. We hope to be able to continue working with them. The confusion seems to have come from agents belonging to more then one agency.”
Bright responded: “When we met with them they blamed an incorrect database for the problem and said they would correct it. Yet two weeks later we receive further recruitment letters from them.”
Commenting on the development Sally Laker, managing director of Mortgage Intelligence, said: “With fewer brokers than anticipated applying for direct authorisation it’s going to get competitive. This is not the last time we will see networks getting protective over members.”
