CAAMP learns its lesson… sort of?

A year after publishing a Globe and Mail article that drew broker ire for extolling the benefits of the AMP, CAAMP takes a more inclusive approach in this year's feature.

In this year’s Q&A, part of an annual advertorial on mortgages, Jim Murphy goes to great pains to promote mortgage brokers in general – the effort coming a year after facing a wall of criticism for appearing to snub non-AMP designated players.

Still, for the supplement, sent out in Friday’s Globe, Murphy extolls mortgage professionals holding the AMP designation as having met the “highest standard of education and ethics in the Canadian mortgage industry.”

That point being made in answer to the question “what distinguishes … AMPs [from other brokers]” as part of a special promotional feature in Canada’s national newspaper.

The article was published Friday, a year after a similar Globe piece drew a swell of broker criticism.

“The majority of brokers, including those who are CAAMP members, are not AMP,” Lior Hershkovitz of Mortgage Edge wrote in response to last year’s article. “They refuse to obtain the designation not because they are less professional than someone who does have it, but because it does not add value to their business or customers. The AMP is ridiculously easy to obtain and any monkey can call themselves an AMP after taking a simple exam.”

However, last year’s edition took a much harder line when explaining the benefits of using an AMP-designated broker.

“In this rapidly shifting environment, it is more important than ever to use the services of an AMP, a mortgage professional who is familiar with the implications of these changes and who can provide the best recommendation for your individual needs and circumstances,” Jim Murphy wrote in a column entitled “Expertise essential in shifting mortgage market.”