High street banks topped the FCA’s list of complaints data for the second half of 2012, both overall and for investment-related grievances, justifying the regulator's mystery shopping exercise to evaluate their advice processes last year.
A long-held suspicion of financial services firms was confirmed by a senior Bank of England official last night as he revealed a 600% increase in UK regulation since 1979, comparing the tide of red tape to the country’s unwieldy tax system.
As recently as last year, Americans were seen as the pariahs of the international financial services world, with many non-US banks unwilling to have them as clients because new US legislation, known as FATCA, meant that they came with onerous tax information reporting obligations.
Financial services professionals across the board have reacted with disdain at the mooted 15% increase in funding for the new regulator, announced yesterday, with one commentator describing his mood as “incandescent”.
The UK government today announced it is to develop and pilot a new “multilateral tax information exchange agreement” with four of its largest fellow EU members.
The combined annual funding requirement (AFR) for the FCA and PRA is £646.3m, a 15% increase on the FSA's figure in 2012/2013.
The vast majority of IFAs have not lost a single client since the implementation of RDR though one in four sees the regulatory regime as a threat to their business, according to Positive Solutions.
The ‘tsunami’ of legislative changes that has swept the financial services industry in order to protect consumers could in fact dampen long-term returns for investors and reduce the profitability of businesses, according to Standard Life Investments (SLI).
Fund performance data and historical costs need to be simplified if the asset management industry is to fulfil its potential to make an important and positive difference to consumers and the economy, according to Daniel Godfrey.
The number of platform providers is expected to shrink by two-thirds once the terms of the FCA's platform paper are revealed at the end of this month or early next.
Care Asset Management has been fined £56,000 by the FSA for misadvising customers on the suitability of Keydata products.
The proposed 1:1 bonus cap for asset managers may be eased after a key MEP indicated that he was willing to compromise on the proposition.
