Bill Warren, associate director at the Regulatory Alliance of Mortgage Packagers (RAMP), believed that with the numerous demands of regulation that firms now have to deal with, it takes a huge amount of time and effort on the part of senior management and compliance departments to keep up.
However, he believed that many brokerages could benefit from an impartial view from outside the business, which could highlight areas of improvement which might be missed in the day-to-day running.
He explained: “Trying to cope with everything that is coming out from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and taking it on board and knowing how it is going to impact you is a massive task.
"Brokers are trying to do everything right at the coalface but they also still need to be looking ahead to the future and what regulation has in store. Even compliance people are very pressurised and there are not many people they can turn to for support.”
Warren believed that such a service would not replace the responsibilities of senior management and compliance staff but instead offer them a different perspective on their business.
Darren Pescod, managing director of The Mortgage Broker Ltd, commented: “The concept is a good idea but you have to be careful that in that crossing all the T’s and dotting the I’s that you don’t go overboard.
"If you get the wrong people in, who tell you what needs to be done over and above the minimum, there is a danger that you are stifling the entrepreneurship of the business.”
