Vizolution has published the second of a series of white papers looking at the potential impact of the Mortgage Market Review, with just over six months to go until its implementation.

In its white paper Vizolution identifies the branch advice issues that will be faced under new MMR rules which govern that in almost all circumstances mortgage advice will need to be provided by CeMAP qualified advisers.

Lenders, intermediaries and estate agents with a branch network will need to ensure that they have enough qualified staff on hand to ensure that their in-branch advice process meets the requirements set out by the MMR and that they document and record these interactions in order to prove compliance.

Bill Safran, CEO of Vizolution said: “The FCA has made it clear that the sales process must be advised if there is any conversation with the customer where information is imparted, no matter where it takes place. As such, it is important to note that this ‘interactive dialogue’ does not refer only to phone and internet sales, but also to any communications initiated in-branch.

“Branch-based mortgage sales have all of the regulatory requirements but none of the safety nets of a telephony process. Where a telephony process usually has strong scripting, call recording and a strong infrastructure to review cases, the branch-based process typically has none of this. Firms will not only need to find and/or train qualified advisers with a Certificate in Mortgage Advice & Practice (CeMAP), but will also need to make sure these advisers are easily accessible whenever a client may need them. This becomes a much more difficult proposition for the branch network where individual advisers are responsible for a number of branches.”

The white paper examines the issues facing an in-branch advice service and suggests solutions that utilise tools such as vScreen.

The location-agnostic nature of vScreen allows an adviser to serve a remote customer quickly, easily and compliantly. For example, by using a ‘hub and spoke’ model, it is possible for an adviser in branch A to serve a customer in branch B remotely using vScreen. This reduces the under-utilisation of advisers, which is often caused by the need to travel between branches.

A logical extension of this model would be to extend it to incorporate the call centre based CeMAP advisers as well. This would allow a CeMAP qualified adviser in a call centre to serve a customer in a branch, providing a better service to the customer while also improving utilisation of qualified agents.