The research showed that the challenge comes for most intermediaries where setting up and using TCF Management Information (MI) is concerned.
Out of a sample of approximately 100 intermediaries, 47 per cent said they knew what they needed to do to set up and use TCF MI, however a significant 40 per cent said they were unsure, with a further 13 per cent stating that they didn’t know what they had to do.
Of those who were confident about what they needed to do, 95 per cent had read or reviewed the TCF Info MI pages containing tips, tools, checklists and case studies relating to TCF MI. This figure dropped to 46 per cent for those who said they were unsure or didn’t understand what they needed to do.
Chris Pearson, director of RBS Intermediary Mortgages commented: “The survey results confirm what we already suspected, which is that although a significant number of intermediaries are making headway with TCF MI, many smaller firms in particular are still unsure of what to monitor and how they should report and act on the findings.”
Frank Eve, managing director of Frank Eve Consulting Limited, said: “Significantly, those in the survey who felt they were ‘on track’ with TCF MI also happened to be the group which has read TCF Info's TCF MI pages both in the greatest detail and in greatest numbers.
"It would therefore be reasonable to assume that our TCF MI checklists, case study and related tips and tools have been of help in improving these brokers’ understanding TCF MI and I would encourage anyone who’s not yet read our TCF MI Tips and Tools pages to go and do so.”
Eve says that qualitative feedback from the survey showed that key concerns included identifying relevant key performance indicators and setting targets, how to produce effective reports from MI findings and - perhaps most significantly - a request for practical examples relevant for Small Firms of using and apply MI.
In response to its survey findings the TCF Info website plans to develop a number of simple MI case studies to supplement its existing MI Checklist and Complaints and TCF MI Case Study.
It has also just published a new content page on TCF MI – key principles summarising the FSA’s recently introduced ‘five step approach’ to developing TCF MI. The page points intermediaries to recently published FSA examples of good and poor MI practice in smaller firms.
