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ISCOVER
Jessica Darnbrough
Brokers have been urged to check the credentials of the lenders they recommend after an unlicensed home loan provider has started targeting mortgage and finance brokers.
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In the past few weeks, The Adviser received a number of complaints from brokers regarding the purported home loan provider Caveat Finance.
Caveat Finance recently launched a marketing campaign aimed at brokers but, according to ASIC, it does not hold a credit license. The lender also fraudulently promotes membership of the MFAA and the FBAA.
Phil Naylor MFAA CEO was quick to dismiss any links with the lender and warned brokers not to be misled by the marketing campaign.
“Caveat Finance is certainly not a member of the MFAA. The company is known to us. We have received a number of complaints from our members about this particular company and we are currently trying to contact Caveat Finance to stop them from using our logo,” Mr Naylor said.
“As of yet we have been unable to contact them. The website listed doesn’t work.
“In instances such as this, the first thing we do is send a cease and desist letter. If that doesn’t work, we look at taking legal action against the company. However, this is an unusual case because we have been unable to contact the company.”
The Adviser phoned the company in question, but the line rang out.
All lenders, brokers and credit intermediaries must be licensed by ASIC in order to offer consumer credit products and services.
While the company no longer has an operating website, ASIC said the business continued to make unsolicited “cold calls” to potential borrowers after the new regulations officially came into play.
But despite ASIC’s investigation into the company, it seems Caveat Finance continues to operate as per normal – ringing and emailing potential clients.
Update: The Adviser has been contacted by Resicom director Stpehen Mitchell who holds numerous websites with domains very similar to the above mentioned business. Mr Mitchell would like to advise that while similar in name, Resicom is in no way linked to this business. Resicom are members of the MFAA & COSL and hold an ACL.
