As you may have seen over recent weeks, the team and I at Paradigm are calling on the FCA to make mortgage advice for all firsttime buyers mandatory. This is a campaign I have been planning for several months, and a topic I have been passionate about for quite some time. This is not a new concern. The question of whether first-time buyers are adequately protected when making the most significant financial decision of their lives has troubled me for years. They face a combination of challenges that no other borrower group faces to the same degree: limited experience of long-term financial products, real information asymmetry and lower financial resilience if something goes wrong. And yet the direction of travel has been going the wrong way, and has reached a point where we must call for change. The FCA's removal of the mortgage advice interaction trigger through PS25/11 last July increases the risk that more first-time buyers proceed without professional guidance. At the same time, the FCA's own Pure Protection Market Study confirmed that 72% of identified protection needs go unmet. These are not abstract statistics. They represent real people who are under-protected at a critical life stage, and Consumer Duty was designed precisely to prevent this kind of foreseeable harm. Mandatory advice for firsttime buyers is not a radical proposition. It is a proportionate, evidence-based response to a clear and growing risk. I have set out the full argument in our policy paper, Mandatory Mortgage Advice for First-Time Buyers: A Proportionate Regulatory Evolution Under Consumer Duty, which draws on the FCA's vulnerability framework, the precedent set by mandatory advice for defined benefit pension transfers, and the evidence from Lenders who already insist on advice for high loan-to-value products. The response since launch has given me real confidence that the industry is ready for this conversation. AMI has formally endorsed the campaign, with CEO Stephanie Charman backing the call for mandatory advice as a matter of urgency. Many of our members and Lender partners from across the industry have already signed the pledge, and the momentum is building. But we need to keep pushing. I cannot drive this change alone. The FCA needs to hear from the whole industry, and every adviser, network, Lender and firm that believes first-time buyers deserve better has a part to play. I am asking you personally to read the paper, sign the pledge, and if you agree with the argument, share it as widely as you can. The more voices behind this campaign, the harder it becomes for the regulator to look the other way. Read the paper and add your voice today. Personal Message from Bob Hunt, CEO The Case for Change: Why Mandatory Mortgage Advice for First-Time Buyers Matters Robert Hunt Chief Executive Officer 16 In a market where vulnerability is inherent rather than incidental, advice should not be optional.
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