The European Federation of Financial Intermediaries and Financial Advisers (FECIF) is embarking on a project to collate a compendium of the various financial advisory and intermediary sectors around Europe.
The European Financial Advice Market Research Project, conducted by trade body the FECIF in conjunction with a department of Nice University, will close the existing information gap by collecting facts and figures on a country by country basis.
FECIF chairman Johannes Muschik explained that the research team will survey the European advisory market, collecting data on the number of intermediaries, sales turnover, number of contracts and products intermediated, the advisory workforce in Europe and in each member state, and assets under advice.
The project commences this month and the expectation is that the final report will be presented in September this year.
Paul Stanfield, the FECIF’s secretary general, added his trade body is in discussion with, and specifically inviting, many other industry stakeholders to work with his organisation on the project.
He said: “Companies that partner with the federation on this project will benefit significantly, receiving the collated market data in full, which many will find highly valuable whether they wish to work on a single country basis or conduct cross-border business in Europe.
“They will also be named and quoted as official sponsors within the study and invited to participate at the press conference in Brussels in September, on the occasion of the public presentation of the results.
The FECIF also indicated that it intends to regularly repeat this research in the future, ideally annually, if resources allow.
Chris Hannant, director general of the Association of Professional Financial Advisers, told FTAdviser that it will be interesting to see what is happening across the markets in other EU member states.
He did sound a note of caution that many look very different, through a combination of historical and legislative divergences, so the project will need to take this into account before making any broad comparisons.
peter.walker@ft.com
