The Association of Mortgages has responded with anger to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consultation on the fee rates it wishes to charge for 2015/16, calling it a “travesty”.

Mortgage intermediary firms are already receiving interim invoices on this together with interim FSCS fee demands for pensions mis-selling. AMI says these will again visit significant increases in costs for firms that will need to be passed on to consumers.

AMI will be responding to this consultation which closes on 18 May 2015 and is considering if it requires more focussed industry action.

Robert Sinclair (pictured), chief executive of AMI, said: “Whilst [the] FCA are headlining an 8.5% increase which is being passed on across the board, this is never quite how it plays out in practice. For the small broker who has paid the minimum fee of £1,000 for a number of years, this is to be increased to £1,084 and they will also have to pay a new levy to undertake consumer buy-to-let totalling £350 to include their FOS levy. On top of this brokers have still to see clarity on whether or not they need a Consumer Credit permission to talk about some historic loans and mortgages raised for commercial purposes.

“All of this means that the small broker will see their FCA fees rise by over 50% per annum. In a zero inflation world, with government committed to reducing bureaucratic costs, this is a travesty. AMI wants [the] FCA to clearly justify to mortgage brokers the need for such increases when they carrying on the same business they have always done.

“For larger firms we also expect to see their bills rise by more than the published 8.5%, and we will be monitoring the final numbers in June carefully.”