Regulation

Advisers waiting for 'alternative' assessments for obtaining QCF Level 4 could be hampering their chances of being qualified before the RDR deadline, Zurich UK Life's intermediary sales director Richard Howells says.

The Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) has approved the final QCF Level 4 standards with new guidelines for giving specialist advice.

The FSA will step in to "police" the banking sector, but has doubts over whether it can actually change its culture.

Senior managers who fail to understand the inner workings of their own business will not get much respect from the new chief financial ombudsman.

The head of Aviva's wrap says the FSA should "hold its nerve" and consider ending the practice whereby fund supermarkets keep rebates from fund management groups.

Banks have been carrying out trades which are ‘economically useless', Adair Turner says.

Baigrie Davies director Amanda Davies has joined the FSA board as a non-executive director.

IFAs face a "race against time" to get in shape for the RDR, with some exhibiting glaring gaps in their knowledge of new qualification requirements, recent research suggests.

Adviser Alliance founder Alan Lakey says the £70m additional levy imposed on intermediaries for the failures of Keydata and two stockbrokers "goes against the spirit of the law" - but is confident the FSCS will re-think its decision.

An investment banker and his wife have been charged in relation to a nine-year insider dealing spree in a case that also marks the first time the FSA has sought the extradition of a suspect abroad.