A single platform will not meet the needs of the majority of clients at any firm that wants to call itself independent, a compliance specialist has warned.

Aviva has reported UK operating profits up 3% for the first half of the year, and highlighted auto-enrolment as an area of opportunity.

Advisory support group Tenet is to review the panel of platforms it recommends to IFAs following a warning from the Financial Service Authority about the use of platforms which permit rebates from providers to clients.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has censured Exclusive Asset Management, a Birmingham based IFA, for investment advice failings.

Consumer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) are still overwhelmingly linked to mis-sold payment protection insurance, with investment products sparking relatively few grievances.

The IMF has said Britain's economy has less capacity to grow quickly over the next few years than the government had hoped, raising the spectre of more tax rises and spending cuts to keep Britain's recovery on track.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said it would be concerned if firms claiming to be independent made "extensive" use of a single platform, or only one which pays a rebate.

Senior financial services executives are concerned the FSA's post-crisis clampdown is harming the UK's international competitiveness, according to a poll.

Mark Wilson, former chief executive of Asian life assurer AIA, is trying to raise private equity backing to bid for the non-core emerging markets businesses of Aviva, according to reports.

Financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban MP, has announced that two deregulatory amendments to the EU Prospectus Directive have been brought into effect a year early by the UK to help small businesses access equity finance more cheaply and effectively....