Martin Bamford's FSA appraisal and final grade

Sure, a lot of what it has done during the past 15 years could have been executed in a much better way. A lot of what it failed to do has had a bigger impact on the retail financial services sector, and its consumers, than the steps it has actually taken. Advisers tend to fixate on a few FSA highlights. It is difficult to talk about the FSA without considering its biggest legacy: the Retail Distribution Review (RDR). As poorly implemented and unnecessarily expensive as the RDR turned out to be, few would argue that higher professional standards and greater pricing transparency is anythin...