FSA: Our small firms supervision is working

In its latest business plan, the regulator reviews its Assessment Programme which, by the end of the summer, will have directly assessed 6,600 retail intermediaries and 200 retail asset management firms through face-to-face and telephone-based assessments. It says: "At the end of the programme, we will be able to demonstrate clearly and measurably, that our direct engagement has changed small firms' behaviours in a real and sustained way." The FSA says, at the beginning of the programme, only 40% of small retail intermediaries were able to demonstrate they consistently delivered fair ...