While most advisers are aware they have two years to obtain an appropriate mortgage qualification some brokers are assuming that because of FSA regulation the clock has been restarted on 31 October 2004.
A new trainee has two years to gain a mortgage qualification with this requirement starting from 1 January 2003.
This means a mortgage adviser who has given mortgage advice since 1 January 2003 has only until 1 January 2005 to obtain a mortgage qualification. After 1 January 2003 a new trainee has two years from the day they started not from 31 October 2004.
Karen Monaghan, managing director of the Kingsland Consultancy, explained that she was worried brokers were failing to realise the time frame involved in gaining the necessary qualifications in order to keep trading.
She said: “The impact of ‘Mortgage Day’ is like a dawning of a new era for some advisers. I have noticed a worrying number who see it as a clean slate and have not realised that the clock is still ticking.”
John Ellis, head of public affairs at the LIA, said: “Brokers with this belief must be in the minority as numbers from the FSA suggest a great number are already qualified.”
Mark Fenton, director at Fenton Simpson Financial Services, said; “I can imagine most brokers are clear on this matter but when you continue to hear horror stories regarding regulation it would be far from surprising if they weren’t.”
