Designed to provide secured loan intermediaries with a representative trade body, the AFB was launched at the House of Commons on 18 September.
Chris Cummings, director-general at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), a sister trade body to the AFB, hoped the formation of the new organisation would help improve market standards as well as market interest. He said: “We are excited by the future and committed to serving the market. However we can only be as successful as you, our members, make us.”
AFB chairman, John Gumer MP, followed up this message with a prediction that European integration and interference would lead to a greater need for a trade body to represent the sector. He said: “Our job is to show people that the trade organisation represents them, with a clear, long-term view. Our policy schedule is already underway with guidance notes already issued on the topic of payment protection insurance (PPI). We must not be afraid to say what our standards are and going forward, we want to create a sector where customers get the service they pay for and expect.”
He added: “We have a role in dealing with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Office of Fair Trading (OFT), helping to bring both sides together. Throughout all of this, the AFB must be responsible. Self-regulation of the market will make the difference.”
Kevin Morgan, managing director at Consilium Financial Planning, welcomed the trade body, as long as it stuck to its task of educating and improving market standards. He said: “If it is a case of education, then that should be applauded. I’m sceptical of trade organisations that pontificate, rather than do.”
