Capital Mortgage Connections feels enforcement heat over cold calls

Glasgow mortgage broker and packager Capital Mortgage Connections (CMC) has been fined £17,500 for cold calling prospects and so failing to treat customers, including potential clients, fairly. Between 4 April and 17 October 2005, over 85% of the firm’s business was derived from telephone marketing based on names selected from a telephone directory in breach of MCOB 3.7.2R. In the same period it sold 220 accident, sickness and unemployment (ASU) policies. 214 (97%) were single premium products rather than regular premium policies, which might have been cheaper. CMC could not show that it had talked to customers about the regular premium option or, when the premium was included in mortgage payments, that interest would be charged, a requirement under ICOB 5.3.1R and 5.5.14R. The FSA also found that CMC had not always fully considered whether a customer would be able to afford a mortgage contract; evidence was lacking that relevant factors were looked at when debt consolidation was posited; and weaknesses were evident in the firm’s Combined Initial Disclosure Document.