AMI launches TCF guide ahead of March deadline

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has produced a guide on Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) for small firms, ahead of the FSA’s March deadline.

The guidance has been produced by AMI’s TCF working party, in conjunction with the FSA, and will help small firms introduce Management Information (MI) into their businesses before the 31 March deadline.

Richard Farr, director of AMI, says: “We fully appreciate that complying with FSA requirements can be a daunting process. This is particularly true for smaller firms who have found it the most challenging to introduce the required MI processes into their business.”

The guide consists of four documents, including: methodologies on how to consider existing and required MI; a matrix of example data for firms to consider; and two examples of hypothetical firms and their interpretation of the FSA’s MI requirements.

Farr says it is important for firms to realise the MI rules are largely a question of interpreting information they already have relating to TCF and not necessarily creating a new data collection process.

The FSA has supported the TCF working party and reviewed the first draft of the guidance release, pointing out strengths and highlighting omissions.

Farr adds: “We will continue to work very closely with the FSA up to the March 31 deadline and beyond. Firms of all sizes must ensure that they do their upmost to meets these deadlines, and as an industry we must continue to support them.”

The guide can be downloaded from the AMI website here.

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