Terms of Business

MORTGAGES - What has changed?

Having previously been a voluntary code, operated by the Mortgage Code Compliance Board, Mortgages and similar Consumer Credit services came to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (the FSA") with effect from 1st November 2004. Both G C Stevens Financial Services and its Appointed Representative, Mortgage Advice Centre, are registered with the FSA, under the registration reference 118274.

We are obliged to provide potential Clients with a "KeyFacts" Initial Disclosure Document about ourselves and to give you information on such important matters as what Fees we charge, and how you can proceed if you wish to complain about our services, which we hope you will never wish to do.

In respect of our "Investment/pension planning" services, we would provide you with a Terms of Business letter fully outlining our responsibilities under that area of Regulation but you might like this further explanation of recent "Mortgage" changes, in addition to the KeyFacts statement that the FSA requires us to issue to you. As did the original voluntary Code, these measures are designed to set minimum standards of good lending and advisory practice which are to be followed by all lenders and mortgage intermediaries.

We are independent and we constantly review the whole Mortgage Market in order to select the appropriate lenders to meet your individual circumstances. There are three levels of service that we could offer you and these are:

• Full advice and recommendation;


• Information on different types of mortgage products available to allow you to make a choice;


• Information on a single product only, where no advice is given.

Most of our Clients require a full advice and recommendation service and we seek to make an informed decision with you about the choice of your new mortgage. During our initial meeting, we would hope to complete a detailed mortgage questionnaire to enable appropriate advice to be given on the mortgage. However, it may be appropriate to select either of the other two levels of service, in which case, this would be agreed with you in writing.

We will also provide you with information relevant to your mortgage needs, covering such items as an explanation of the main repayment methods, the implications of taking out a mortgage and this is shown in the Key Facts illustration. Once we have made our recommendation to you, we will confirm our advice in writing. This should be kept by you as it will be a record of the transaction, and will be confirmed by your lender's formal offer of a loan.

We may reserve the right to charge a fee in respect of our service, but only after it has been agreed with you This fee, is for the time researching the market, for the administration involved, for submitting the application to the appropriate lender on your behalf and for ensuring that the transaction is completed to suit your requirements. It is payable before we carry out any chargeable work and takes in to account the fact that we also receive a fee from the lender, upon completion of any loan. We will tell you the amount of that further amount before you complete your loan, and we will also inform you if we should receive any other sort of benefit, such as AirMiles.

Confidentiality
We treat all Clients' personal information as private and confidential (even when you are no longer a customer) except where disclosure is made at your request or with your consent in relation to arranging your mortgage.

As part of FSA's duties we may be asked to provide them with access to our customer records in order that they may be carry out an audit of our activities. The FSA's ability to inspect customer records promotes best practice in our industry and ensures that you continue to receive the best possible service from us. If we disclose your personal information to the FSA then it has agreed with us that it will only use it for the purpose of compliance and not for any other reason.

Complaints / Compensation
As outlined in the accompanying KeyFacts statement, we have to observe stringent procedures in respect of Complaints and our Mortgage business is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Signature
In order to advise you properly, we should obtain certain information from you about your financial and personal circumstances, in order to assess your suitability for particular products and services.

We will be grateful if you would sign to acknowledge your agreement to the following

• that the information we hold about you can be held on computer and/or paper files.
• that any information which you give us may be disclosed to third parties (eg credit reference agencies and product providers) for the purpose of processing your application.
• that we may use the information that we hold about you to contact you from time to time post, fax, e-mail or telephone to bring to your attention additional products or services which may be of benefit to you.
• that any consent given by you under paragraph 3 above may be withdrawn by you at any time by contacting us in writing at: Ibex House, Baker Street, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 8AH

I/We acknowledge receipt of a Terms of Business Letter of which the above is a copy and by me/our signature(s) confirm that I/we have read and understood the same and agree to be bound by them.

Signed: ……………………………… Date ……………………… Signed: ……………………………… Date ………………………