Advisers have been receiving bills from the FCA anywhere between 50 and 100 per cent greater than last year’s as any even casual perusal of social media will demonstrate.
The reason is a massive increase in the costs associated with the compensation scheme as reported in Professional Adviser by Hannah Godfrey. She suggests advisers are befuddled. I rather think irate or just angry might be better descriptions.
FTAdviser has launched a campaign to draw the attention of the Government, FCA and Treasury to the unfairness of the increase. It will be interesting to see how the campaign progresses.
There is talk of a judicial review, but it is important to see if there are significant legal grounds for such a challenge.
The bills may be partly due to cases such as collapsed DFM SVS Securities. The FSCS has begun returning funds to investors as Money Marketing reports.
The amount of cash paid out in UK dividends dropped by a record £22bn in the second quarter of 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown according to FTAdviser.
The FCA, Prudential Regulatory Authority and Bank of England are consulting on an updated complaints procedure for the three regulatory bodies.
The FCA is looking into Neil Woodford’s depositary Northern Trust in relation to the events that led to the gating of the Woodford Equity Income fund last June, Citywire Wealth Manager has learned.
The depositary is meant to keep the ACD in check in the way that the ACD is meant to do the same for the fund manager.
The Treasury select committee has approved Nikhil Rathi as chief executive of the FCA as Citywire reports though I am not sure their disapproval would stop the appointment so I am not sure approved is the right term.
What is interesting is that Rathi told the MPs that he would resist a policy that was rushed such as the Pension Freedoms. Would have been very interesting to see Martin Wheatley try to do so at the time.
This is an interesting move in the world of corporate pensions. Vodafone moves its £1.4bn DC scheme to Lifesight’s Master Trust.
