The Financial Services Authority has confirmed that its long-awaited platform paper will be published in the beginning of Q2 2013, meaning it will fall under the new regulator's remit.
FTAdviser understands this will be either the end of April or the beginning of May as policy statements need to go to the Board for approval first and the Board always meet at the end of the month, which is why policy statements are published then.
If this is the case, the FSA will have moved to a ‘twin peaks’ model reflecting the future split into the Prudential Regulation Authority and the FCA. From 2013, prudential supervision and conduct supervision will be handled respectively by the two new bodies.
A spokesperson for the FSA told FTAdviser: “We expect it to come out in the early part of Q2. That is not definite because as policy statements come out, they need to go to the Board for approval.”
Although the FSA announced in December that the platform paper would be delayed, it was largely expected to be published in Q1 2012, although the regulator said it had not confirmed this and has always said “in the coming months”.
In December, the regulator said it was delaying its final policy statement rules on platforms to 2013 as it awaits response from HM Revenue & Customs, which it has said is still working on clarifying the tax position.
The consultation paper 12/12 closed for responses at the end of September and it was expected that final rules would be published in a policy statement at the end of this year. The rules were then due to come in 12 months after publication in December 2013.
The CP 12/12, Payments to platform service providers and cash rebates from providers to consumers, proposes that rebates to platforms and cash rebates to customers will be banned and that the ban will apply to non-advised platforms too.
However, in a recent development, FTAdviser understands that the regulator is now considering making a major concession in its proposed ban on cash rebates by allowing cash rebates of £1 or less following industry lobbying, FTAdviser understands.
The re-consideration is the product of a dialogue between the regulator and members of the platform industry as well as the Tax Incentivised Savings Association.
The FSA has indicated that platforms will still have 12 months to update their systems before the rules come into effect, meaning the sector will not have to comply until early 2014.
