The standard: Chapter executives conduct themselves and their work honestly, openly, and without misrepresentation.

What this means in practice:

• You do not exaggerate IMBLN’s reach or your own authority. If a client asks whether IMBLN can guarantee a mortgage, you say plainly that it does not. The institution sets professional standards; it does not lend money.
• You do not claim qualifications you don’t hold. If you haven’t completed CMP yourself yet, you say so. People appreciate honesty about credentials.
• You do not let your personal financial interests guide your official decisions. If a developer you’re related to wants endorsement, you disclose the connection and step back.

The red flag: Any time you find yourself shaping the story to look better — about yourself, your record, or the institution — pause. The short-term gain is never worth the long-term cost.

The standard: Chapter executives operate only within the scope of their qualifications and refer matters beyond that scope to better-qualified colleagues.

What this means in practice:

• You don’t try to be the legal expert. When a title dispute comes up, you direct people to qualified solicitors.
• You don’t try to be the valuation expert. You direct people to ESVARBON-registered surveyors.
• You don’t try to be the lender. You don’t make promises about loan approvals.
• You commit to continuous learning. Industry rules change frequently. A chapter executive who hasn’t updated their knowledge in two years has fallen behind.

The red flag: Anyone who acts as if they know everything is hiding the truth that they don’t.

The standard: Chapter executives give advice and exercise judgement free from undue influence by lenders, developers, brokers, or political interests.

What this means in practice:

• You don’t accept payments, gifts, or favours from market participants in exchange for preferential treatment.
• You don’t push particular lenders or developers based on personal benefit.
• When you sit in conflict resolution between a broker and a client, you decide on the merits, not on relationships.
• Political pressure to “look the other way” on a connected person’s case is not a defence. You document the pressure and act per the code anyway.

The red flag: When the easy decision and the right decision diverge, the right decision often costs short-term comfort.

The standard: Chapter executives protect the confidential information of clients, brokers, lenders, and the institution.

What this means in practice:

• Personal financial information you encounter in a broker audit or client complaint is not shared casually.
• Strategic information about the institution’s plans, partnerships, or finances is not leaked to outside parties.
• Even after you leave the chapter executive role, the obligation continues.

The red flag: Information you’d be embarrassed for the person concerned to know you shared — you shouldn’t share.

The standard: Chapter executives treat all members of the public and all professionals with respect and fairness, without discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability, or political affiliation.

What this means in practice:

• A Yoruba woman from Lagos and a Hausa man from Kano get the same attention, same standard of guidance, same access to chapter support.
• A young broker just entering the field gets serious mentorship, not dismissive treatment.
• A person from a smaller cooperative is treated with the same respect as the CEO of a large PMB.

The red flag: If you treat people differently based on who they know or what they look like, you’ve broken the standard.

The standard: Chapter executives undertake their duties carefully, completely, and within reasonable timelines.

What this means in practice:

• Complaints are investigated, not buried.
• Reports to the national office are submitted on time and accurate.
• Brokers in your state who need support get it within reasonable response time.
• You don’t take on more responsibility than you can deliver. Saying “no” to an additional assignment because you can’t do it well is more honest than saying “yes” and dropping the ball.

The red flag: Backlog and silence are the warning signs of a chapter executive who is overcommitted or disengaged.

The standard: Chapter executives do not solicit, accept, or facilitate corrupt payments or transactions that may constitute money laundering.

What this means in practice:

• You do not accept “kola” from anyone in exchange for institutional favours.
• You do not facilitate transactions where you suspect the funds are proceeds of crime.
• Suspicious patterns — unusually large cash purchases, complex structures with no clear business purpose, pressure to move quickly without due process — are reported through appropriate channels.
• Compliance with the EFCC, NFIU, and CBN guidance applies in your work too.

The red flag: When something feels off about a request or a transaction, document it and escalate. Don’t dismiss the feeling.

The standard: Chapter executives maintain conduct in their personal and public life that is consistent with the standards expected of an institutional representative.

What this means in practice:

• Social media posts that may bring the institution into disrepute are avoided.
• Public statements on contentious matters are made carefully, with awareness of the chapter executive role.
• Personal financial conduct should be exemplary — a chapter executive with publicly known debt-default issues, for example, undermines their authority on financial matters.

The red flag: If you’d be uncomfortable for your conduct to be reviewed by the national executive, that’s a signal.

The standard: Chapter executives report unethical conduct by others — brokers, members, or fellow chapter executives — through proper channels.

What this means in practice:

• You don’t cover for a broker who’s defrauding clients in your state, even if they’re a personal friend.
• You don’t tolerate fellow chapter executives whose conduct falls below the standard.
• Whistleblower protections in IMBLN’s framework apply to good-faith reports.

The red flag: Loyalty to a colleague that costs the institution and the public is not loyalty — it is complicity.

These ten standards are written as rules but they share a single spirit: the IMBLN-certified professional acts in the best interest of the public, the profession, and the institution, in that order, and exercises judgement honestly even when no one is watching.

A chapter executive who internalises this spirit doesn’t need to read the code every day. The conduct flows naturally. A chapter executive who reads the code every day but acts otherwise — those are the people the institution must remove.

The Code of Ethics asks for integrity, competence, independence, confidentiality, fair treatment, diligence, anti-corruption practice, professional image, and willingness to escalate. The standard is simple to state. The work is to live it consistently, including the hard cases where it costs you something.

You sign on to this code when you become a chapter executive. You renew that commitment in every decision you make in the role.

1. What does the “Independence and Objectivity” standard require, and what is the red flag?
2. Why is confidentiality a continuing obligation even after you leave the chapter executive role?
3. What is the standard on fair treatment, and what would breaking it look like?
4. What is your duty when a fellow chapter executive engages in unethical conduct?
5. What is the single spirit behind all ten standards?

— End of Appendix Lesson A1 —

Next: Appendix Lesson A2 — Glossary of Key Mortgage and Property Terms