COMPLIANCE UPDATES

As the sun shines longer and the summer months wind down, the real estate market typically sees a surge in mortgage applications. Many prospective homeowners aim to secure their new homes before the long, dark nights set in. With this seasonal uptick, lenders are ramping up their efforts, enhancing their systems and processes to streamline […]

  There are, however, occasions where we are unable to pay commission as quickly as we would like. So here is some guidance on what could cause your commission payment to be delayed. When commission is received, our Finance Department will first look to find an OMS case to match it to, so when there

  The Equity Release Council has introduced a new testing requirement for all of its members. This test must be completed each year to maintain membership and to ensure your knowledge remains current. We have uploaded this test to the LMS system, and any adviser with Equity Release permissions will be allocated this training to

In July 2023, the FCA’s Consumer Duty rules came into force. Consumer Duty has been described as the ‘biggest overhaul for the UK’s financial services industry in 20 years’.  But what actually changed and what have we learned a year on? The FCA introduced ‘The Four Outcomes’: the governance of products and services price and value

Compliance has checked 500 cases so far this year, so what are the trends that we can learn from? Last year we enhanced our file checking process and introduced some new initiatives: Phone calls to deliver file check feedback Heads up process to help new (BLUE) advisers with their learning journey Improved file checking scoring

Most people have heard of the term vulnerable customers, and even know what type of people may be classed as vulnerable, but do you know what to do when someone is identified as vulnerable? Before we cover what help can be given to vulnerable customers, let’s look at who might be vulnerable and the scale

In our 2023 Summer Newsletter, we wrote an article called Use it or lose it. In this, we covered the FCA and Network rules that are required to maintain your permissions. To maintain your Regulated permissions, each adviser must complete a minimum level of business. Regulated activity covers the following: Regulated Home Finance, e.g. Residential

The risk from AI (Artificial Intelligence) fraud has significantly increased recently with the advances that have been made in AI technology. AI is being used to help in financial services with many lenders now using AI to help speed up the underwriting process, but as well as the benefits, there are also risks. What is

  Halifax announce 1% limit on broker fees It has been nearly a year since the FCA launched Consumer Duty and whilst all lenders have looked closely at broker fees, they are now starting to put firm rules in place on what they deem acceptable. Halifax has announced that from the 1st of June 2024,

So, what do we mean by staged income, or even inflated income, and are these both types of fraud? Staged income is the process of falsely presenting a job that doesn’t exist. This could be by creating fake payslips to make it look like someone has a job that doesn’t exist or amending bank statements