Treasury considers making principal firms culpable for wider scope of AR activities

Under current rules, if appointed representative firms carry out unregulated activities that fall foul of the ombudsman, the body cannot always investigate the complaint and set appropriate compensation for consumer losses. This is also the case where the scope of the contract between the AR and principal does not cover the regulated area in which the consumer has brought a complaint. The ombudsman can, however, consider complaints where the AR has undertaken a regulated activity that is included in the contractual agreement between the AR and its principal. A pitfall of the current a...