Nice Loans.co.uk > News > Trade Organisations for Loans
Should brokers chose between Loans Industry bodies?
Trade organisations in the loans industry are supposed to represent loan companies to industry regulators and the public at large, but it seems a newly setup body is now in conflict with one of the older organisations.
FISA, the Financial Industry Standards Association acted as part representative and part trade-run regulator. Frirms that were signed up to FISA had to have their staff trained to FISA standards and issue FISA documentation to customers. This was all voluntary but many back-end loan providers would only work with FISA approved firms and loan brokers. It was a way, the lenders said, of making sure loan brokers were acting properly - a kind of self regulation.
But many loan brokers see FISA as a bit of a lenders club for the boys, not an offical authority but able to exert pressure on loan brokers and not doing a particularly good job of representing their businesses.
The body that was supposed to do that was the old CFB (the Council of Finance Brokers) which was disbanded and re-emerged in more modern form as the Association of Finance Brokers (AFB).
It is the AFB which now argues that there is a conflict of interest for it's board members who are also part of the broker council within FISA.
FISA has had other worries recently with different people claiming it has lost it's way and needs to re-establish it's identity in a era of more complicated and more strictly enforced compliance requirements. Earlier this month it was reported that FISA could be putting brokers at risk by not updating it's guide in line with new FSA thinking on the selling of payment protection insurance
Copyright © 2007 Nice Loans - The Cheap Loans Provider
