PMPN, which has announced its latest membership figures at more than 200, was responding to news highlighted in Mortgage Introducer - News last week that the majority of networks are still refusing to say how many AR members they have.
Martyn Bell, head of network at PMPN, said: “It is important for brokers to have complete transparency from their network right from the very beginning and this refusal to reveal membership numbers does not give out the right signals.
“No one expects totally accurate figures as the industry rushes towards the regulation deadline.
“We are certainly finding that there is a lot of shadow boxing going on by brokers. Some brokers have applied for AR status, then withdrawn – it turns out they have also applied to be directly authorised by the FSA and were using AR status as a fallback position.”
Bell added: “But networks should now be revealing membership levels which show that the business plan, income projections, staffing and IT systems all match the projected figures submitted to the FSA. If not, a question mark is bound to hang over their future viability. That is not a position for any network to be in this close to ‘Mortgage Day’.”
Sally Laker, managing director of Mortgage Intelligence, said: “This is a fair point. When Mortgage Introducer- News brought this issue up last week it did ring true. Details of our membership are imminent.”
