The forum will have representatives from the whole mortgage industry and RAMP is interested in speaking with parties from the lending, packaging, network and directly authorised markets.
The forum, which aims to have 12 delegates, will draw its membership from lenders, packagers, directly authorised (DA) intermediaries and networks to better represent the differing views of all the mortgage industry. With the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on record as saying it wants better industry cooperation, the forum would aim to provide a more unified voice with which to engage the regulator.
RAMP believes that while the industry has forums representing the interests of individual groups, such as lenders and intermediaries, the wider issues of compliance have not been addressed by a forum made up of all interested parties.
Nick Battersby, compliance director at RAMP, commented: "In setting this up, we want to bring together the concerns of the whole industry and therefore better coordinate responses to the FSA as well as acting as a positive catalyst for proposals to ensure improvements to the regulatory structure. Compliance is of the utmost importance to the whole industry and if this forum can bring together the right representation, then it can only act for the greater good in liaising effectively with our regulator. I would ask interested parties to contact me by email – [email protected]"
John Rice, managing director of RAMP, continued: " We are looking to bring together representatives from lenders, DA brokers and networks, as well as non-RAMP members to fill the packager seats. It is envisaged that members would share the role of chairman on a rotating basis. The important factor to emphasise is that the major purpose of the new group, The Mortgage Compliance Forum, will be to engage the FSA in such a way as to promote constructive dialogue and a sharing of views before policy decisions are made. We want to reverse the process of reacting to policy decisions in which the industry has had little or no input."
With probably twelve members, it is envisaged that the forum will be comprised of four lenders, one packaging alliance (RAMP), two independent packagers, three directly authorised intermediaries and two networks.
