11:19 pm, March 9, 2011
ITC Compliance has announced a raft of new business wins in the retail automotive sector.
Recent new members of the ITC Network include Cathedral Motor Company (T/A Arbury), HWM Aston Martin & Intercontinental Alfa Romeo in Walton-on-Thames, ALS Lock Skoda in Ely, Simpsons Motor Group in Great Yarmouth and Newman & Reidy Mitsubishi in Northampton.
Matt Dyer, CEO of ITC Compliance said: ‘More and more dealers are recognising that compliance is a serious business and is about to get tougher, and so are taking greater care about who they entrust their compliance business to.’
Dyer says that these new clients are now ahead of the game given further changes that he believes will be seen in the world of FSA compliance.
‘The move from FSA to CPMA next year will see more attention, pressure and regulation heaped upon companies offering compliance services to dealers, and rightly so.
‘We are prepared – our main function has always been to support dealers – enabling them to earn more through the use of our simple but robust systems whilst freeing up their time to focus on selling.
‘But our own research has revealed that motor dealers could be putting their compliance in the hands of suppliers whose own practices may not stand up to scrutiny by the authorities.’
The research shows that, of a sample of five companies that claim to be experts or consultants in the field of automotive compliance, 60 per cent have a suspended credit rating as of their last filed accounts date.
‘We found three instances of companies with suspended credit ratings and two with incorrect directorship details lodged with the FSA. This is a highly significant breach of FSA rules and principles and such lack of attention to detail should make dealers wary of entering into any alliance,’ Dyer added.
‘Dealers must do some careful questioning before joining an FSA compliance network, but so often we find they are not sure what to ask. Hence, we have developed a list of ‘must ask’ questions for dealers to quiz prospective compliance networks with.
‘Key amongst these are questions about freedom to sell the insurance products your customers want, not just those that are available from the network provider; as well as questions to ensure the sales process fit and most importantly the financial viability of the compliance company,’ said Dyer.
To see the full list of ‘10 Must Ask questions before joining a compliance network’ visit http://www.itccompliance.co.uk/?cat=motor&page=ten_questions
