The trade body is looking for representatives to join the group which is being launched just over a week after the government announced a 2006 HIP ‘dummy run’.
AMI director-general Chris Cummings described HIPs as ‘one of the biggest risks in the industry’ and said AMI would be asking plenty of questions in order to work out how best to guide its members.
Cummings cited HIPs as a huge risk to those outside the lender/ estate agent axis and revealed his main concerns.
He said: “An AMI member contacted me with worries about remortgage business. They were concerned over what would happen if they did not have close links with estate agents and also about their role in the remortgage process.”
“We are concerned how HIPs will impact on and shape the market. How are they going to be developed, who will develop them, what will be the cost and who will have to pay?” Cummings added.
l Cummings is also recruiting two more policy officers, one for AMI and one for the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) as well as a head of marketing.
Cummings explained the need for more staff: “If membership is £16 a month, I would like to give members £20 worth of value. We’ve done this through newsletters, factsheets, regulatory meetings and conferences. What we don’t do is the big thought leadership projects, the big market analysis research.
“Our intermediary census is a toe in the water in this regard. We want to know what our members are looking for and we’ll try and deliver this.”
