Owen applied for the top job earlier this month, after incumbent director general Chris Cummings announced his resignation. But Owen received a letter at the end of last week from the trade body confirming that he had been unsuccessful.
Owen told Mortgage Introducer: "This is not surprising, I applied in the hope that the members would get a casting vote on the way things should be run, what issues should be addressed and how forceful it should be. Granting me an interview would have shown that AIFA weren't scared of defending their members' interest in a more direct way, and on a one member one vote basis which is what many have told me they want."
Rumours abound that AIFA has a shortlist of five candidates to take over from Cummings, although the association wouldn’t confirm who had applied for the job or whether it had a confirmed shortlist.
The identities of the other applicants are subject to wide disagreement but market speculation suggests that Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries as well as an existing director of AIFA, is the firm favourite to take over.
Alan Lakey, the outspoken director of alternative IFA body the Adviser Alliance, had promised to scrap his organisation had Evan Owen landed the role.
But he told Mortgage Introducer: “I’ll absolutely be staying on at the Adviser Alliance now that Evan’s not going to head up AIFA. And until such a time as the worst facets of the RDR are overcome, and the long stop on redress schemes is actually given to advisers, I’ll carry on standing up for what I believe in.”
And he added: “Robert Sinclair is cast iron certain to get the job in my opinion. The last three director generals at AIFA - Paul Smee, David Severn and Chris Cummings – have all been diplomats. I think those are the qualities AIFA is looking for.”
Cummings is set to leave AIFA in August to become the first chief executive of TheCityUK, a new independent membership body for promoting the UK-based financial and professional services industry.
The AIFA appointments committee is being chaired by John Gummer.
