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p>The Easter weekend's two four-day weeks plus school the holidays normally makes it one of the quieter periods of the year...
Looking at the office diary I can see that Brightstar has plenty of staff on holiday this week or about to disappear next week so this is a good time to make some productive use of the downtime during the working day.
March has been a record breaker for us and most people that I speak to are busy and, if you are like me, a lot of peripheral tasks get put down the ‘to do’ list while the main job of closing out mortgages for clients take precedence.
However, this week I am determined to clear out my list of ‘other’ jobs and I started this morning by reading the ‘Consultation Outcome - Implementation of the EU Mortgage Credit Directive’ prepared by HM Treasury.
I can’t say that it is the most interesting thing that I have ever read, but depending upon your market sector it really is something that you should be aware of at the very least.
Equally thrilling (based on my initial skim read anyway) is the FCA best-seller ‘Consumer Credit – Proposed Changes to our Rules and Guidance’. This weighs in at 123 pages so trying to condense that into a section of a 500 word blog would be an exercise in futility, but let me at least put this one on people’s radars.
The potential implications to commercial brokers could be quite far reaching and I wonder how many market participants are on top of the proposed changes or are even aware of them?
The NACFB has been ‘banging the drum’ for many months now about the regulatory changes and the implications for the commercial lending and broking market.
However, despite all of the workshops, road shows, e-shots and articles there are still a sizeable minority of brokers that still seem unsure about the changes or how their businesses will be affected.
A few quick questions to ask yourself – do you have interim permission from the FCA? Do you need full permission to undertake your current business? When your ‘landing slot’ is and what do you need to do to gain your full permission? Under what circumstances can you trade without FCA permissions and what restrictions would you work under?
If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions I would recommend a bit of reading on the FCA rules or a discussion with a compliance professional.
The days when the FCA rules applied to ‘other brokers’ are gone and I apologise to any readers that already know all of this, but I am trying to ensure that this message gets across to any individuals or firms that are still unaware of the changes in the market.
Phew, that was heavy going I know, but put the effort in now and feel superior over the Easter weekend #knowledgeispower!
The Easter weekend's two four-day weeks plus school the holidays normally makes it one of the quieter periods of the year....
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