The Mortgage Market Review (MMR) is due for implemetation in April 2014. While this may not have a great impact on your firm, you do need to understand what the changes are and what this means for your firm.
We published a news item on the MMR requirements on the 26th April 2013. Since that time the FCA has conducted an implementation survey and published the results on the 9th October which you can see here. In summary, the feedback for intermediaries is:
- They are more prepared than lenders;
- Firms intending to provide execution only services are behind with preparation;
- Intermediaries were unsure of the disclosure requirements, execution only process and how to evidence suitability;
- Firms’ biggest stated risk to implementation was understanding the rules.
Further work planned by the FCA includes support in the form of fact sheets and possibly a webcast. They also plan to offer firms face to face meetings with the implementation team in February 2014.
FCS Transitional Arrangements
Steve Bailey Compliance Update
As you will be aware the Financial Services Authority ceased to be and the Financial Conduct Authority took over the regulation of financial advice firms on 01 April 2013.
The FSA issued PS13/05 last week which includes updated rules and transition arrangements. The policy statement itself is 88 pages but the ‘appendix (3)’ that accompanies it is a mere 1990 pages so you must excuse us for not as yet absorbing every word. The document can be seen here.