Fluent for Advisers has argued that all master brokers and distributors providing second charge services to the intermediary sector should already have their client facing staff fully CeMAP qualified.

The second charge distributor has confirmed that all of its client facing advisers had already passed CeMAP 3 two years ahead of the requirement set by the regulator and now has 53 members of staff with the full CeMAP qualification.

Tim Wheeldon, Fluent’s chief operating officer, said it is important that network clients and individual broker introducers can see that the distributor in which they are placing their faith is not only compliant, but also has the qualifications at the same level as they have.

He said: “We have not only insisted that all of our advisers who talk to brokers and their clients are better qualified then the current rules require, but we have also asked our case managers, who do not need to be qualified, to also take the full CeMAP exam. Currently 70% have CeMAP 3 with the remainder working towards that qualification.

“The second charge market is still winning its spurs in the wider intermediary sector. We feel that being properly qualified today is the minimum requirement that any master broker or distributor should be able to demonstrate to introducing brokers if second charge lending is going to reach its potential as a viable alternative to remortgaging.

“We believe that the regulator has been very generous on the timescale to achieve full CeMAP. In our opinion, every master broker and distributor, who is serious about the professionalism of our industry should already have their adviser staff fully CeMAP qualified.”