Neil Liversidge: Letter from the front line

Faced with the hypothetical prospect of being head of the FCA for a day, LEBC chairman and CEO Jack McVitie recently suggested on Professional Adviser all small adviser firms should be forced into networks. He thought the direct authorisation threshold should be a minimum turnover of £3m and that firms should need at least 15 advisers. This, he added, would enable the FCA to "concentrate on the bigger firms and effectively outsource to the networks". I can think of no single measure that would be more anti-free enterprise and more anti-consumer. Networks, as we know, struggle to make a p...