85% of product transfers are non-advised, says AMI

Speaking at the Financial Services Expo in Manchester yesterday, he told brokers there was an estimated £100bn of product transfer activity last year, of which £85bn didn’t involve them.

85% of product transfers are non-advised, says AMI

Around 85% of product transfers are carried out without the customer geting any advice, chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries Robert Sinclair estimated.

Speaking at the Financial Services Expo in Manchester yesterday, he told brokers there was an estimated £100bn of product transfer activity last year, of which £85bn didn’t involve them.

Sinclair went on to claim this business going to lenders direct is undermining the Mortgage Market Review’s avocation of an advised market.

He said: “Product transfers are the hidden bit of the market – we think it accounted for £100bn of lending in 2016 of which 85% was done direct, non-advised by the lenders.

“In that sense the great work done by the MMR in order to promote the benefits of mortgage advice has actually been undone by some back-door manoeuvring by the lenders.”

He admitted the precise amount of product transfer business is unknown due to the Council of Mortgage Lenders not possessing or publishing the numbers.

Sinclair added: “We need the data but we won’t have it until mid-2018.”