For or Against Treating Customers Fairly Regulations

July 31, 2008 by Brendan O'Neill

Mortgage Advisors

During your CeMAP training, you will learn about the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative instigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the regulator for the financial services industry, including CeMAP qualified mortgage advisors.

TCF is designed to ensure that mortgage advice companies put their customers first, look more closely at how they treat their customers and ensure they meet the minimum requirements. If they do not, then they face the burden of being supervised by the FSA.

In the argument for the TCF, it means that the mortgage advisor has to put the customer at the heart of what they do, make sure that they are clear on all the products and services the mortgage advisor offers and really gives the mortgage advisor the chance to secure their customer’s loyalty. This means it is ideal for marketing, after all, it is what customers want at the end of the day, but it seems many mortgage advice companies are missing out on this opportunity by confining TCF to the compliance department.

However, some companies are simply seeing the TCF regulations as a pain at the moment and are just trying to meet the December deadline to make sure they are compliance without realising what a great marketing gift the FSA has given them.

Newly qualified CeMAP students are more likely to realise the importance of the Treating Customers Fairly regulations than perhaps the older mortgage advisors are.