Since 22 July 2025, talking to a customer during an execution-only mortgage sale no longer automatically triggers the need for advice. PS25/11, from the FCA's Mortgage Rule Review, removed what it calls "the interaction trigger". It kept the oral warning and the customer's positive election, and added a new rule beside them. So a phone sale still has the warning and the election to evidence, and the conversation that no longer triggers advice is where a sale can drift into advice or steering. This guide writes MCOB 4.8A as criteria a call can pass or fail, each labelled rule (R), guidance (G) or evidential provision (E).

What PS25/11 changed, and what it kept#

PS25/11 paragraph 1.13: "We are removing the interaction trigger at MCOB 4.8A7R (3) and associated rules and guidance." The FCA's Mortgage rule review page says firms can now "interact with their customers without this automatically triggering the need to provide regulated advice".

What stayed:

  • The barred cases. MCOB 4.8A.7R (R): a firm "must not enter into or arrange an execution-only sale" in statutory right-to-buy cases, where the main purpose is debt consolidation, or with a shared equity credit agreement.
  • The oral warning. Where there is spoken dialogue, the firm "must provide this information orally (even if it also provides it in a durable medium)" (MCOB 4.8A.14R(4), R).
  • The positive election. Where there is "spoken or other interactive dialogue", the customer confirms "in writing" or orally "(and that confirmation is audio or video recorded)" (4.8A.14R(5), R). MCOB 4.8A.16BG (G): interactive dialogue "includes SMS, mobile instant messaging, email and communication via social media sites; this list is not exhaustive".

In its response to feedback on the positive election (after paragraph 2.19), PS25/11 adds that requiring a customer to make a positive election "will not, on its own, be taken by us as amounting to compliance with our new rule (MCOB 4.8A.4AR) or with the Duty's consumer understanding outcome".

One boundary: MCOB 4.1.2R applies the chapter to mortgage advisers and arrangers "except in relation to lifetime mortgages", which this guide does not cover.

Who is watching execution-only now#

In the FCA's product sales data, non-advised sales were 3.3% of the regulated mortgage sales reported for 2025, up from 2.6% in 2024, rising every quarter of 2025 from 2.9% to 3.6%. That is our arithmetic from the FCA's published figures, which cover lenders' direct sales as well as intermediaries'. Two limits. The published breakdown is house purchases, remortgages, right to buy and other new lending, with no product transfer category, so rate switches with an existing lender, where execution-only is common, are not in it. And "non-advised" is the FCA's reporting category, not the MCOB definition of an execution-only sale. The share has moved before (2.9% in 2022, 2.2% in 2023), the rise began in the first half of 2025, before the new rules took effect, and the data does not say why. In its response on the cost benefit analysis (after paragraph 6.26), PS25/11 names the key indicators for the interaction trigger change as "the use of execution-only channels by customers, and complaints relating to these sales". That is the FCA monitoring its own reform, not a duty on firms.

Six criteria for a phone execution-only sale#

MCOB 4.1.2R applies 4.8A to mortgage advisers and arrangers, and to lenders where no firm is arranging the sale (MCOB 4.1.2AR), so these can fit a lender's direct sales team too.

1. Purpose checked against the barred cases

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.7R (R), with its exceptions for high net worth customers (4.8A.9R), certain variations (4.8A.10R) and rejected advice (4.8A.12R). MCOB 4.8A.13G (G) says firms that do not offer advice may "wish to use filtering questions".

Passes: the purpose is asked before the product details and noted as given (asking is what 4.8A.13G suggests; asking it first is the firm's standard).

Fails: the customer says "it's mainly to clear the credit cards and the car loan", and the call carries on. Worse: "if we put it down as home improvements we can keep it execution-only". MCOB 4.8A.8E is an evidential provision: misdescribing the customer's purpose or characteristics, or encouraging them to tailor the loan amount, so that 4.8A.7R does not apply "may be relied on as tending to show contravention of MCOB 2.5A.1R", the best interests rule, which 4.8A.4G says applies to execution-only sales too.

2. The customer specified the product

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.14R(1) (R). For a new contract the customer has identified it, "specifying to the firm at least" the lender, interest rate, rate type, property price or value, term, sum to borrow, and interest-only or repayment. Variations have their own lists in (2) and (3). MCOB 4.8A.15R disapplies (1) to (3) for high net worth customers and business-purpose loans; (4) and (5) still apply.

Passes: the customer names the details and the agent repeats them back (repeating back is our evidence standard).

Fails: the customer says "whatever fixed rate you've got, I'm not fussed on the term", and the agent fills in the rate type, term and amount without the customer naming them. The rule has the customer do the specifying; here the firm did it. If the agent also says which option to take, that is criterion 5, or advice, and the sale is not execution-only at all.

3. The warning: spoken, after the details, separate, the right version

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.14R(4) (R). The warning comes "(after providing the information in (1), (2), or (3), where that is required)", separate from other information. Where the customer rejected advice and the firm had advised that the contract they now want is unsuitable, the warning says so. In any other case, it says the firm "is not required to assess the suitability" of it. Either way, it tells the customer they do not have the protection of MCOB 4.7A.

Passes: once the details are specified, the agent gives the right version of the warning on its own.

Fails: the warning comes before the details (where 4.8A.14R(1) to (3) apply), is folded into terms and conditions, or uses the "not required to assess" form when the firm had advised the customer that this contract was unsuitable.

4. The positive election, confirmed and captured

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.14R(5) (R): once the warning has been given, the customer confirms "that they are aware of the consequences of losing the protections of the rules on assessing suitability and are making a positive election to proceed with an execution-only sale". MCOB 4.8A.16AG (G): the confirmation "need not be in the same document or recording" as the warning.

Passes: where the firm takes the confirmation orally, the customer gives it in their own words on a recorded call, covering both the consequences and the election (their own words is our standard; the rule requires the confirmation to cover both and, if given orally, to be audio or video recorded). Where the firm takes it in writing, it is a file check.

Fails: "I'll take that as a yes." Or the "yes" comes from the agent's side of the line, which makes this the obvious item to mark consent-gated.

5. No encouragement to opt out, and no steering

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.5R (R): a firm "must not encourage a customer to opt out of receiving advice ... or reject advice given by, it or any associate". MCOB 4.8A.6G (G): a firm "should not steer the customer to elect to enter into an execution-only sale".

Passes: where the customer asks, the two routes are explained without a lean either way.

Fails: "Advice just slows it down. If you know what you want, we can have it done today."

6. Signs the customer may need advice or support

Basis: MCOB 4.8A.4AR (R), new in PS25/11: a firm "must consider what procedures it is appropriate to establish to identify execution-only customers for whom advice on suitability, or other customer support, may be necessary to avoid causing foreseeable harm ...". That is a duty to consider procedures, not to monitor calls; scoring calls for these signs is one procedure a firm may choose (firm standard). PS25/11 says firms not confident their systems can identify those customers "can direct customers to advice".

Passes: the customer says "I don't really know the difference between a fix and a tracker", or "I was made redundant last month", and the agent offers advice or support.

Fails: the sale carries on regardless (a firm standard, as above).

A file check: the record

MCOB 4.8A.18R (R) requires the firm to "make and maintain a record", kept for three years. Where advice was rejected, it covers "any advice from the firm which the customer rejected, including the reasons why it was rejected ..." (4.8A.18R(1)(d)). A record is not a recording.

Advised and execution-only calls need different evidence#

On an advised call, MCOB 4.7A.2R (R) requires the firm to "take reasonable steps to ensure" the contract is suitable, and 4.7A.5R(1) says a contract will not be suitable unless it is "appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the customer". Those rules reach advisers; MCOB 4.1.2R takes 4.7A out for arrangers. The advised call evidences the adviser's assessment; the execution-only call evidences the customer's specification and election.

Affordability under MCOB 11 is the lender's assessment: MCOB 11.6.2R requires an assessment of whether the customer "will be able to pay the sums due", and MCOB 11.4.2R, which sets who MCOB 11 applies to, lists no adviser or arranger.

Does the whole call have to be recorded?#

In the MCOB chapters we opened, we found no rule requiring it; that was not an exhaustive search. The election can be confirmed in writing, so recording is one of two ways to capture it. The warning can be given in a durable medium or in an oral statement that is "audio or video recorded", and must also be given orally where there is spoken dialogue. Where a durable medium is used as well, the text does not say whether the spoken delivery must itself be recorded. We have not resolved that. Our view: the call is where the details were specified, the warning spoken and any steering heard, so a firm that does not record has no direct evidence of what was said. Our Consumer Duty and call recording guide covers the wider question.

Putting it on the scorecard#

Our MCOB mortgage advice scorecard is a starting template of 34 criteria in seven sections, written for advised calls. It has no criteria for the execution-only warning or election, so execution-only calls need criteria like the six above.

CallGuard AI does not decide what MCOB requires of your firm. Your scorecard defines the criteria; CallGuard transcribes the calls and scores each call, or each sale's calls together, against them, with the transcript evidence each pass or fail was decided on, or a note that none was found. An item your firm marks consent-gated, such as the positive election, goes to a manual review queue when CallGuard can't reliably tell which speaker gave the answer. That is the substance of scoring mortgage calls against your firm's own scorecard. If you are comparing tools, our Aveni and Recordsure comparisons include what we do not do.

To see your execution-only criteria scored, we run the demo on synthetic calls against a scorecard like yours, and put a DPA in place before any of your real recordings are processed.