The move follows a report in Mortgage Introducer - News that the FSA had assembled a national ‘hit squad’ to target unregulated brokers attempting to continue writing mortgage business.
Martin Davies, commercial director at Sesame, said the firm’s members would offer local intermediaries the option to refer their mortgage business to Sesame advisers for as long as it took them to get regulated.
“The figures from the FSA and my own observations of the market would suggest that there are still significant numbers of firms who for one reason or another will not meet the FSA deadline,” he said.
“I recently met a broker who was quite confident that he could do it all in the final week,” he added.
Davies said that brokers seeking help from Sesame members could find a local firm via the Sesame website (www.sesame.co.uk). He added that contracts protecting client ownership and cross-selling could be drawn up.
Mark Mountney, managing director of Premier Mortgage Management, whose firm operates by dealing with mortgage referrals from advisers who do not specialise in mortgages, said:
“We are in the process of e-mailing our entire old client bank in case there are any of them who find themselves in a position where they will need to refer mortgage clients.
“I would warn all firms who have had clients referred to them to ensure they maintain a compliant relationship with the client. Only recently an adviser was fined £60,000 by the FSA for basing advice on the information received from the referring firm instead of the client’s own information.”
