The independent study found that only 12 per cent of mortgage brokers believed TCF principles had been met by the industry while 70 per cent felt that the specialist lending market had failed to fully adopt the TCF rules, despite their importance as part of FSA regulation.
Alan Cleary, head of sales at BM Solutions, said: “We have been saying for some time that the mortgage market still needs to embrace the spirit of regulation, particularly the TCF element.”
However Julian Wells, head of marketing at Mortgages plc, said he was shocked the figures were so high. “The FSA has made no secret that it will be on the lookout for TCF compliance and I am surprised that the number is at 70 per cent.
“I expected it to be a lot lower. TCF has become this years’ industry buzzword and is being incorporated in all company approaches to the market.”
Wells added:“ It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the figures to ascertain where the brokers felt TCF was not being implemented in the specialist lending market.”
Mike Fitzgerald, sales director at Brentchase Financial Services, was also quick to downplay the significance of the findings. “I think the figure of 12 per cent may be slightly out-of-date as in the last few weeks Abbey, the Portman, Standard Life Bank and other companies have made great strides in understanding and embracing the relatively new information.
“It will be interesting to see the results if another survey of this kind is conducted next month.”
