16 Skyline | Edition 8 | Winter 2025
At Simplybiz, we regularly survey members to gauge their feelings on the industry and ask them what’ s keeping them awake at night. Our most recent survey indicated that, once again, regulation is viewed as the number one challenge for advice firms, closely followed by increasing administrative burdens – some of which is likely to be a result of regulation!
Paul Bruns
Compliance Director Simplybiz
There’ s a well-known saying in the industry that the only constant in regulation is change, and this is particularly relevant in this period of potentially significant change as the regulator looks to simplify the currently exhaustive rulebook. So far in 2025, the FCA has issued a total of 25 consultation and discussion papers, including key papers covering the Mortgage Rule Review, SMCR reform and the Pure Protection Market Study, which is significantly more than the 13 issued at the same point in 2024. Although not all papers are relevant to all firms, it is indicative of the pace of change and the work required by firms to keep up to date and ensure that their businesses are prepared for any proposed changes.
Mortgage advisers have a wide range of regulatory services available from Simplybiz to help tackle the demands upon their business, so I wanted to set out some of the major areas to consider and the help that we can offer.
Someone in your corner
The greatest value behind consultancy is that we are consultants. This means having a trusted business adviser in your corner who specialises in regulation. Your consultant should build relations with you and get to you know your business, and where you have a problem, offer solutions. By virtue of being a consultant, and helping multiple firms, our consultants gain knowledge and experience from the fact they work with a breadth of similar firms with similar challenges.
Consultants can provide assurance in the face of regulatory uncertainty, for example through third-party engagement with the regulator. Reassurance may be required where a firm is required to complete, for example, a new regulatory return or survey, or respond to supervisory correspondence. Consultants will also be able to provide frameworks and structures to help you meet regulatory requirements, whilst also support you in personalising these frameworks based on their knowledge of your firm and your activities.
Although overall compliance responsibility remains with an authorised firm, good compliance consultancy should provide appropriate support to ensure that firms are meeting their regulatory responsibilities and also ensuring that they remain aware of the future direction of travel and are fully prepared to adapt to any changes required.
So, how do you quantify value when it comes to compliance support? Although there is a cost to obtaining support, real value can be measured in the time saved by engaging with experts, additional clients served as a result, improved efficiency, reduced