The Financial Services Compensation Scheme boss Caroline Rainbird says the disparity between FSCS maximum levels of compensation and the ombudsman's are confusing to people.
The Ombudsman can award a maximum of £355,000 for complaints while the FSCS is restricted to £85,000.
“This variation of compensation certainly causes confusion for customers, as potentially one customer could receive a higher award from an ombudsman decision,” she said.
A big jump in FSCS maximum awards would not be welcomed by many advisers as it would clearly place more cost pressure on the scheme and likely then advisers too.
The UK’s total advised gross flows on to platforms were down 14 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q3, according to The Lang Cat’s latest quarterly Platform Market Scorecard.
The Lang Cat’s Steve Nelson puts the quarterly dip down to “a combination of seasonality and the latent fallout of record flows towards the beginning of this year”.
Might be something to watch if the trend persists however.
There is an interesting list of platform providers attracting most money in terms of gross inflows for Q3. They were Abrdn’s SL Wrap/Elevate (£2.23bn), Quilter (£2.22bn), Transact (£1.97bn), Aviva Platform (£1.92bn), and AJ Bell Investcentre (£1.7bn).
Sam Sloma, managing director of Engage Financial Services, wants the FCA to clamp down on poor provider response times. Clearly there is a big risk of client detriment when answering an email takes 97 days. Sloma is also rightly concerned about the failure to clamp down on online advertising of scams though I would note that the FCA itself has been asking for more powers in this area.
IMPAX CEO Ian Simm argues that despite the poor headlines, COP 26 was a success and will bring significant investment opportunities.
Falling gilt yields drive potential DB transfer amounts to record levels says XPS, a mixed blessing to say the least.
