FSA

Financial promotion framework rules could soon require firms meet risk-based advertising regulations rather than the current sector-specific regime for product promotions, suggests the Treasury.

Latest Financial Services Authority proposals on the cost of advice menu will add to the confusion among consumers rather than clearing the fog it was initially set out to do, warns Selestia.

Independent financial advisers will face further compliance as well as reduced incomes if the menu for comparing financial products is introduced as it currently stands, warn financial industry experts.

Consultant Grant Thornton says a survey of 160 general insurance brokers, including 29 of the top 50 income earners, has found most are ignorant of the corporate and personal risks that regulation under the FSA will bring.

All members of the Mortgage Code Compliance Board and the General Insurance Standards Council will be subject to retrospective complaints-handling once the FSA enforces pending regulations.

The FSA has today outlined its proposals to ensure financial products are not sold on the market at below distribution cost as a result of deals between providers and distributors in which they have a significant ownership stake.

The FSA has released its proposals on menu documents outlining the charging structures and information on fees and commissions intermediaries will have to provide consumers with in future.

UK consumers might soon become more 'financially equipped' argues the Financial Services Authority after it this morning outlined proposals to launch a consumer education programme ahead of depolarisation.

The FSA's cost-benefit analysis of its menu proposals implies IFAs will be squeezed between falling commissions brought about by greater market transparency and rising compliance costs.

Issues of provider investment in adviser firms, use of the word "independent", initial disclosure documents, technology, and the ability to do business over the telephone have been specifically tweaked by the FSA in response to earlier proposals on de-polarisation....