Special Official Note For Mortgage Brokers

regularsaver1

But I thought it was said that advice can not be given here?

dunstonh

I'm not a mortgage adviser but would the same apply to IFAs? We have slightly different rules with investment class disclosure than mortgage class but the principle is the same.

I ran the comments by my compliance chap and he came back and said that the minute you mention a company name (advising company) the signature should then contain full disclosure. i.e. xyz company is authorised and regulated by......, your home is at risk.... etc etc.

The personal opinion, not advice etc comment is certainly required.

AndrewSmith

That is what my understanding is also Dunstonh

regularsaver1

jamminjamaica wrote:

i think the advice given by these mortgage brokers is invaluable. so just wanted to say thanks..

so advice can be given or not?

MSE_Martin

We need to avoid giving personal or regulated type of advice. Thus I think we need to take away the name of the company?

Views?

MortgageMamma

Perhaps we should omit the company name itself but disclose our FSA authorisation number, then provide a link to our regulatory details on the fsa register?

For example. I am authorised by the Financial Services Authority registration number 44444. Please go to www.fsa.gov.uk/register to ascertain my regulatory details.

or, for example, just a "my regulatory details are available upon request"

regularsaver1

would this cause problems for someone who was just commenting, based on experience, but is not a broker

AndrewSmith

What about this Martin? Any better?

:A

dunstonh

The FSA compliance message is a standard wording though MM. If you give any indication of personal contact or link, then you should use the standard wording. If you are posting informally and not giving advice then you just need a "this is not advice" type warning which most of us already carry.

I dont mind going with full disclosure if required. Although I would be a little wary. I was reported to FSA once for a post I thread i contributed on in the uk.finance newsgroup and had my real name on it. The complaint wasnt upheld as the person had copied and pasted comments from others and edited the posts. Plus the subject was generic discussion and not provider specific. It went down as a spurious complaint. But it did give me a crash course in what is and isnt allowed to be said

MortgageMamma

Flippin heck D, thats pretty nasty. I suppose thats taken us to the point of

full disclosure

or

no disclosure at all - in signatures anyway - but surely the minute you do the full disclosure it can be deemed as advice for which we are accountable and I'm sure most of our PI insurance doesn't cover internet forums?