A freedom of information (FOI) that was established at Paul Day of Network Consulting Services at the FCA in November indicates a meaningful fall in directly authorized mortgage advisers in the past four years.
The question of trade day that was sent to the FCA included how many applications for companies to become DA to intermediary for each of the following permissions (investments and pensions; mortgages and home financing; and consumer credit and insurance) are approved for each of the past five years .
The response that specifically related to mortgages and home financing showed a steady decrease from 442 in 2020 to only 132 in 2024.
A further asking day sent to the FCA was: “What is the total number of current individual intermediaries that can advise on mortgages (included CPD20 & CPD21)?”
The answer was that the total number of people with active CPD20 – advising or arranging regulated mortgage contracts and/or active CPD21 – advising or arranging shares of release transactions at all authorized companies at 35,263 for 2024 (data on January 14, 2025.
Compared to a period of six years, this number also shows a clear decrease before 2024, in particular more than a year with the number of adviser of 36,836 for 2023. Prior to these numbers, it had been relatively stable at 36,441 for 2022; 36.211 for 2021 and 36,377 for 2020.
FCA -Including data for 2024 will be released in August 2025)
Responding to the figures that Day said: “We have seen a relatively stable number of mortgage advisers in all sectors of industry, including both DA and ARs between 2019 and 2023.
“However, there was a remarkable decrease from 2023 to 2024 of 4.3%. Since the number of advisers within networks (appointed representatives) has been stable over the past three years, it is reasonable to assume that this decrease can be more attributed to the directly authorized space.
Da -numbers
Looking at the number of new business requests for direct authorization in the past five years, Day said it was clear that there had been a remarkable decrease in mortgage and protection companies that were looking for direct authorization. Last year there was indeed less than 30% new companies that were applicable to Go Da than in 2020.
“There will be a number of contributing factors for this, but I suspect that the two most important factors have been the introduction of the consumer obligation and the changes in the application process, making it a heavier process than before.
“This is a well -trained gamble, but we should speak with all the so -called DAs that have stopped the movement to fully understand this.”