FISA equalises board

The FISA constitution has also been formally amended to create two categories of members of comparable status, broker members and lender members.

The new additions to the FISA Board are all representatives of secured loan broker firms and will join those lender representatives who are currently members. The broker members of the FISA Board are (in alphabetical order):

· Mark Cooke (Bright Finance)

· Ian Guy (Relax Finance)

· Jeremy Masding (Central Trust)

· Paul Newey (Ocean Finance)

· John Webb (Magic Mortgages)

· Tim Wheeldon (Fluent Money)

The FISA Board meets quarterly and the first meeting of the new Board will take place on Wednesday 8th October. John Parker, Chief Executive of FISA, commented: “Reconstituting the FISA Board to have equal numbers of brokers and lenders is a major step forward for FISA. I am delighted that so many well-respected brokers have agreed to be on the FISA Board. The current market situation presents challenging times for both brokers and lenders; the entire industry needs to collectively tackle these challenges and this new Board will provide a forum where industry issues can be discussed and solutions achieved.”

Mark Cooke, Chief Executive of Bright Finance, said: “The market is facing huge business, regulatory and reputational challenges at present. The entire mortgage market is under intense political scrutiny. Deciding how the industry needs to respond to the attention the various regulators (including the Competition Commission) are giving to PPI, how customer-focused the industry needs to be, our current standards and how these square with the expectation of the regulators including the FSA as it moves to principles-based regulation, are just some of the issues we have to address.

“Brokers and lenders are dependent on each other and need to work together to decide on the best course of action. While the industry will continue to be intensely competitive on many of these issues we need to consider how the market as a whole should react. The new FISA Board will be the ideal opportunity to decide the way forward and I am looking forward to playing a full part in the debate.”

For more information on the Finance Industry Standards Association (FISA), visit: www.fisa.co.uk