In 2020 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reported 135 ‘intermediaries removed from each lender panels’. That represents 0.95% of the number of intermediaries advising on mortgages in the same period.

Out of 49 Lenders that report panel removals to the FCA, only 17 did so in 2020.

On average, each mortgage lender removed 2.75 intermediaries in the year 2020. That average is skewed, with two mortgage lenders accounting for 62 panel removals (45.93% of total) in 2020.

This shows that the IMLA & AMI “joint guidance on the lender and intermediary relationships” is working. We’d expect more even numbers if lenders were removing intermediaries “based purely on information from another lender”.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority, only 33 of the 135 intermediaries removed from lender panels are Appointed Representatives (AR). Directly Authorised intermediaries, therefore, made up 75% of all panel removals.

The mortgage lenders reported in 2020 that 58 of the 135 mortgage intermediaries were “complicit in the fraud”, making up 42% of the removals. 33% of the intermediaries removed were done so by lenders as “five or more cases caused concern.”

We conducted this research at Cyborg Finance, aware that a panel removal can be critical for firms. This data justifies our investment in systems to detect and prevent malign cases from being submitted. It should justify yours too.