Mortgage advisers pay for poor advice

Three mortgage brokers have been fined for failing to collect adequate information about customers’ needs and circumstances and to demonstrate the suitability of their advice. Mohammad Rama, trading as Property Compass (Countrywide), paid £14,700 after the FSA also found that his record keeping procedures were very poor and he did not properly train supervise and monitor the firm’s one adviser. There was no evidence that Peter Scott, who operated as the Mortgage House, undertook any market research before he recommended mortgage contracts and he “did not have a clear understanding of the FSA’s regulatory requirements”. Mr Scott received a £11,900 penalty. Chariot Mortgage Services paid £10,500, in part for misleading customers into believing that it selected products from the whole of the market when it only used a restricted number of providers. The FSA found evidence that customers had been recommended interest-only mortgages when they had clearly stated that repayment by the term of the loan was important.