One of the biggest achievements of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries was to protect mortgage firms from the regulatory cost ramifications of the Retail Distribution Review, according to chief executive Robert Sinclair.
Talking to FT Adviser editor Simoney Kyriakou before he steps back to spend more time with his family, the man who has spent the past 16 years advocating for mortgage brokers and their end customers said it has always been vital as a trade body to get the "regulatory piece" right.
He highlighted the work AMI and AIFA (now PIMFA) did with the regulator around the Retail Distribution Review, particularly ring-fencing protection from the changes to investment advice.
Sinclair - who described himself as a "grumpy old man" - explained: "The regulatory piece is important to get right.
"For example, we took the sales of protection - life, critical illness and income protection - out of the pensions pot [during RDR] and into general insurance which meant pure mortgage advice firms were no longer caught with the costs of the investment mis-selling issues that have plagued the compensation scheme for the past decade.
"This has saved mortgage advice firms about £100mn in terms of bills. This was a huge win."
This took huge and "robust" debates with the regulator.
Ready for the future
But there is also a need to protect and advocate for members in terms of their businesses.
Sinclair said: "Coming out of the [2008] financial crisis, there were a lot of mortgage advisers who had not done the job very well. They were involved in self-certification - often self-certifying their own income into a mortgage.
"The FCA [FSA as was] took about 220 advisers out quite quickly. The lenders also went through a draconian process and took about 2,000 advisers off licence. What we did in that period was make sure there was a proper appeals process.
"We set up memorandums of understanding with other trade bodies to make sure lenders did this fairly."
This sort of regulatory consultation and "robust" conversations with lenders is still ongoing at AMI, although there is also a strong sense of making sure the mortgage advice firms themselves have future-proof businesses, particularly if the advice gap is to be narrowed in the UK.
Sinclair said: "We must have a forward-looking agenda to make sure firms are ready for the future." And in terms of leading that charge at AMI, he said that was the job of the next generation of leadership. "It's time for me to step back", he said.
So what did he say he expects to do? "There's a small bucket list of sporting events that I'd like to see in the next few years; travel more; spend more time with my grandchildren - I have eight of them", he added.
