PMS Mortgage Club, in partnership with compliance expert Bankhall, has rolled out a suite of new support to help mortgage and protection firms adapt to the Consumer Duty ahead of its 31 July 2023 rollout.
According to the two organisations, some directly authorised mortgage firms have expressed concern over their ability to adapt to the regulator’s requirements for demonstrating fair value.
Consequently, this new guidance offers targeted support in this area and will also help firms prepare for the FCA’s examples of good and bad practice, which are expected to be published over the coming weeks.
The new additional support from PMS and Bankhall includes:
- Guidance on the steps firms should take to help demonstrate fair value – broken down into the specific requirements across mortgages, protection, and general insurance.
- A Consumer Duty checklist to help firms measure and demonstrate how they are embedding the new requirements.
- Examples of best practice across the industry, allowing firms to have oversight on what individual product providers and mortgage lenders are doing.
Alex Beavis, group director – mortgages and protection at Sesame Bankhall Group, said: “Consumer Duty is a sea change in terms of the way firms are regulated and so it is unsurprising many feel they need additional support.
“In partnership with Bankhall, we’ve looked to do the heavy-lifting and collate all the information firms need to demonstrate fair value and governance in one place, as well as help them set out a process for continually stress testing and reviewing their work.
“Directly authorised firms will be undergoing a significant transition in the coming months, and we’ll be continually revisiting our comprehensive library of support materials to ensure they have everything they need.”
Linda Preston-Todd, client relationship director at Bankhall, added: “While advisory firms operating in protection and general insurance have been accustomed to fair value frameworks since their introduction in 2021, this is a brand-new area for many mortgage advisers. Therefore, it’s crucial firms take the time to carefully validate their work and have a means of sense checking this against industry best practice.
“Encompassing free guidance, backed-up with access to our regulatory experts, our latest package of support aims to provide advisers with all the insight and intelligence they need to ensure their work stands up to regulatory scrutiny.”