Commenting on the FSA's position on dual pricing and its view of the current difficult market conditions, the regulator's head of mortgages and credit unions, Jonathan Fischel, said: "Lenders are not obliged to deal through intermediaries. Lenders are not in breach of any FSA rules if they go down this route and not every product in the market will be available to any one intermediary."
Fischel said the regulator was concerned about consumers' access to advice and the cost of the advice but it was not in a position to stop lenders continuing with what was a commercial decision. He said the FSA had been working with AMI on two particular issues, one being broker's ability to attain a KFI and the content of the KFI, the other was the responsibilities of a whole of market intermediary given the current situation.
In terms of brokers being unable to access the deals currently offered by many lenders direct to the consumer, Fischel said there was an option to advise the client to go direct and charge a fee for that advice. Many brokers present dismissed this idea suggesting it was difficult to do this in practice and inconvenienced the customer.
Fischel also said that transparency was key for the broker. He added: "The crucial point is ensuring that the customer is made very clear about what they are being provided with. The intermediary should clarify that there are deals only available direct from certain lenders. We don't however think the intermediary needs to be specific about those lenders and the deals."
