A mortgage broker wants all brokers to register their concerns about the potential for displacement of the role of advice in the mortgage market, which made up part of the recent Mortgages Market Study from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Clayton Shipton (pictured), managing director of CLS Money, believes there is a danger that the concept of advice recommendations, based on scoping a lending panel representative of the whole market, could end up being diluted.

He said: “The direction of travel over the past 10 years, as far as regulation is concerned, has been to fully support the concept of whole of market advice provided by qualified mortgage brokers. The inference to be drawn from the relevant parts of the review casts doubt over the regulator’s wholehearted support for the process in the future.

“Yes, the mortgage market is evolving and it is important that ways and means of working are challenged, particularly as technology is making such an impact on how consumers interact with services. However, it would be a retrograde step to go back to a situation where customers are simply ‘sold’ a product, without recourse to a proper market review.

“It is up to all of us in the adviser community to make our objections known or we give up the right to complain if the regulator then decides, due to broker apathy, to water down the role of independent ‘whole of market’ advice.”