Robert Sinclair, chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), has re-iterated his calls for a fairer FSCS system which would be based on an up-front levy for all financial products sold.

Speaking at the FSE Manchester event on Wednesday, Sinclair said: “AMI would prefer an up-front product levy in order to fund the FSCS. This would cover every single financial service product and would put a kite mark on a product so that consumers would know they were protected; no kite mark, no protection.”

Sinclair did acknowledge that political and regulatory upheaval probably meant such a change was unlikely in the short-term.

However, he argued revisions could still be made. “At the least you should only pay for misdemeanours that take place in the areas in which you operate,” he said. “If you advise on mortgages you should not be paying for problems in pensions, for example.”

He also said that AMI were seeking a 30% input into the scheme from providers, plus the trade body wanted to see quality discounts and risk-based levies for firms.

“Good firms who do good things, who have good PI cover, should pay less,” he argued. “Most firms who have PI cover, never even claim on it.”