CML and Which? have launched a mortgage fees tariff that advisers can use to help clients understand and compare mortgages and lenders.
The move follows a Which? campaign to end the confusion around mortgage costs. The tariff will introduce a standard format for how lenders communicate their fees and is designed to make it easier for customers to understand charges and compare deals.
Areas of improvement include providing standard terminology, as currently, different lenders have been using the same names for fees, and a common format, whereby each lender will list fees in the same order, and with the same descriptions, would make it easier to compare fees.
Adviser View
Simon Webster, managing director of Ashford-based Facts & Figures: Chartered Financial Planners, said: “Regulatory ‘clarity’ makes me laugh. For the past however many years, under rules drawn up by the FSA and then the FCA, every mortgage adviser has to produce a standardised key features illustration laid out by the regulator.
“But, obviously, the regulator couldn’t produce clear terminology or set out a format of its own, so now the government is asking a private company to do this. It’s ridiculous.”
