Lenders, intermediaries and estate agents with a branch network must have enough qualified staff to ensure that their in-branch advice process meets the MMR requirements and that these interactions are compliant.
Bill Safran, chief executive of Vizolution, said: “The Financial Conduct Authority has made it clear that the sales process must be advised if there is any conversation with the customer where information is imparted no matter where it takes place.
“As such it is important to note that this interactive dialogue does not refer only to phone and internet sales but also to any communications initiated in-branch.”
Safran said branch-based mortgage sales have all of the regulatory requirements but none of the safety nets of a telephony process.
Where a telephony process usually has strong scripting, call recording and a strong infrastructure to review cases the branch-based process typically has none of this.
Firms will need advisers with a Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice to be easily accessible whenever a client may need them.
This becomes a much more difficult proposition for the branch network where individual advisers are responsible for a number of branches.
The white paper examines the issues facing an in-branch advice service and suggests solutions that utilise tools such as vScreen.
vScreen allows an adviser to serve a remote customer quickly and compliantly making it possible for an adviser to give advice without being in the same branch as the customer.
