(Top left to bottom right)Dean Mason, owner of Masons Financial Planning; Rob Killeen, business manager at Capital Fortune; Pat Bunton, director at London & Country; John Hindle, acting manager, small firms division at FSA; David Geale, sector manager, intermediary mortgages, at the FSA; Tom Spender, head of retail enforcement at the FSA; Nigel Stockton, financial services director at Countrywide; John Heron, managing director at Paragon Mortgages and chairman of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders’ Association; Jo Porter, compliance director at Mortgage Support Network; Mike Fitzgerald, sales director of the EMBA Group; Robert Sinclair, director general at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries; Jennifer Bourne, senior policy adviser at the Council of Mortgage Lenders; Martin Reynolds, director at K&R Consulting
tighten up their criteria the harder it is to commit fraud. So in a market where lending is much more difficult then there is time to spend on these issues. The key thing is that when lending picks up again is to make sure that those controls are scalable. These are the sort of things that we think about when we look at the Mortgage Market Review and when we put forward proposals on things like income verification in all cases. Tom Spender: Part of the thematic review was to identify good practice which lenders would be able to pick up and apply in a proportionate way to their firms. We’ll be keeping a close eye on that and hope that lenders will take seriously those recommendations that we’ve tried to help the industry by publicising.
from a large dIstrIbutor poInt of vIew has the
relatIonshIp wIth lenders has changed? Nigel Stockton: We want to be seen as a good partner of lenders. My own view is that all I ask for is a level playing field. What I don’t like is that the banks and the people with large telephony and execution only field forces do not get the same degree of forensic investigation that the FSA is giving me when I’m giving advice. I know for a fact that fraud is linked to loan to value and if branches are giving higher LTVs then there will be more fraud in branch than in broker. Rob Killeen: I think that’s part of the issue though there are a lot of difficulties around terminology and what is fraud. There’s the point that some people think its social help. I don’t accept that. Fraud is obtaining an advantage by deception. By having a zero tolerance policy and saying that fraud is fraud no matter how it manifests itself is a very important message to this industry.
Pat Bunton: I agree. When something has been going wrong and you turn a blind eye to something which is relatively minor you can bet your bottom dollar that there is a lot more going on beneath the surface which isn’t being seen. It’s also fair to say that lenders have responsibility in that as well with the messages that their sales staff and sometimes their underwriters give to the broker community. There’s a difference in how to present a case and actually trying to mislead someone. That makes it very difficult where you’ve got a world in shades of grey which has been created by the lender broker interface. It’s an issue which is wider than just inter- mediaries. John Hindle: We support those stances as well and any disclosures of non-compliance to lenders means lenders can’t make sensible decisions and somebody may end up with an
mortgage introducer JANUARY 2012 35
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