The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has just published the latest list of firms that have been declared in default, with losses guesstimated to be in the region of £100m.
Now in the joined-up world that we live in, do you not think it would have been possible for the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to have stepped in before these firms defaulted in order to prevent ‘consumer detriment’.
After all, with our annual retail mediation activities return (RMAR) reporting, the FCA can see exactly what is going on in a business, where businesses might be in trouble and where they can step in and help. Only they do not, because they do not know that these are the firms shovelling bucket loads of toxic rubbish out of the door to the unsuspecting public.
Why? Because the RMAR does not point out what is going on – it is a tick-box exercise that purports to have some control over member firms. Well, I am a consumer and I, and like-minded advisers who are never going to be shovelling claims onto the FSCS by going into default, am stuck with having to fund the levy that bankrolls this nonsense. So can somebody explain to me which part of ‘prevent consumer detriment’ the FCA is achieving?
Philip Stevenson
Chartered Financial Planner,
Ark Financial Planning,
Stalybridge,
Cheshire
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