Within the total, 662,700 transfers were conducted on an advised basis - 6.9% more than in 2018. As a result, the number of execution-only transfers fell by 4.8% to 532,400.
In the final quarter of 2019, there were 309,300 product transfers, a decrease of 4.6% year-on-year. Of these, 166,700 were advised and 142,600 were execution-only.
By value, Q4 product transfers represented £44.3 billion of mortgage borrowing, a decrease of 1.5% year-on-year. Of these, £25.2 billion was advised and £19.2 billion was execution-only.
Despite concerns from intermediary firms and trade bodies, the FCA recently introduced new rules which promote execution-only sales channels.
The regulator raised the trigger points at which firms need to divert customers from an execution-only to an advised channel and will "encourage firms to make execution-only sales channels easier to use".
In its policy statement, the FCA said the changes "make it easier for firms to present options to consumers without giving regulated advice".
In its final rules, the FCA admitted that intermediary firms and trade bodies "had some concerns about the proposal to make execution-only sales channels more accessible, particularly the proposal to remove prescriptive detail from execution-only sales policy".
