Mortgage and protection firm Access Financial Services has appointed Jeremy Lock to the role of director of compliance.

Lock (pictured) joins Access FS from Absolute Return Investment Advisers (ARIA) where he was head of compliance. Previously, he was with Cooper Associates for five years, where he set up their compliance academy.

He said: “I’m looking forward to sharing my commercial approach to compliance across the business, helping drive it forward and achieve our ambitious goals for Access FS.

“Before I entered the world of compliance some 10 years ago, I started out in the 90s as an estate agent and then became a financial adviser, so I’ve been on both sides of the fence and can understand the pressure points on either side.”

Karl Wilkinson, CEO of Access FS, added: “Top-level compliance is critical to how we develop the business. We’ve experienced strong, steady and continuous growth since we started up in 2017, and Jeremy will be instrumental to the continuing success and integrity of the business.

“Jeremy’s 10 years running compliance training academies will also prove invaluable right across the business including for our administrative staff, our employed and self-employed advisers and senior management. Training is the bedrock of what we do here, with our Access Academies seeing a doubling of entrants in 2024.”