26th February 2025
FCA at it again
In a recent letter sent to ceo’s the FCA said it would be carrying out ‘supervisory work’ on mortgage advisers over the next couple of years.
This included looking at whether “sufficient assessment of customer circumstances is being carried out, and whether the advice being given is suitable”.
It also said it would assess to which extent firms were ensuring customers understand the products available to them.
Additionally, this supervisory work seems to focus on the “adequacy of firms’ systems and controls, and quality assurance procedures to ensure there is consistency in the advice given and appropriate oversight to mitigate risks of harm.”
I have been working within this industry for a long time and have survived, if that is the right word, the oversights of NASDIM, Fimbra, PIA, FSA and now FCA attempts at keeping regulation relevant, simple ideally and something that the consumer can understand.
I do wonder if such a 2 year review is really needed? We live in such a regulated world it seems madness to me that part of the advice process has to now focus on whether the client/ customer is stupid.
They are saying for example that:
- the risks of secured lending should be featured prominently alongside the promoted benefits
- firms should not be seeking to exploit consumers’ behavioural biases
- communications should be designed in a way that avoids foreseeable harm and aids consumer understanding
The warnings attached to mortgage products are everywhere!
Is it me? Given the hoops that have to be jumped through, by homebuyers today to actually get an affordable mortgage, and, advisers who are qualified and regulated to assist over all these years, are we to assume that the regulator concludes that consumers are now so stupid that they need protecting from themselves!
Just a thought? Do let me have yours?
I would comment on the article, but doing so under my own name has recently lead to some awkwardness (shall we say). Probably because I have been hyper- and publicly critical of the FCA since its inception.
Anyway. I thought that it might be instructional to add this link to the comments -https://mises.org/mises-daily/seven-rules-bureaucracy
The FCA is spouting off about mortgage advisers because of Rules #1 (certainly) and #3 and #5.
It is simply the SOP of all utterly unaccountable totally self-serving bureaucracies through all of time.
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