Adviser numbers have not significantly reduced since the advent of the Retail Distribution Review, although since the start of the year there has been a further 11 per cent fall in advisers at banks and building societies, according to the latest Financial Conduct Authority data.
The number of advisers in the bank and building society market fell to 3,182 in October, from 3,556 in January. Prior to the RDR in mid-2012 there were an estimated 6,655 advisers working for banks and building societies.
Overall, adviser headcount has remained fairly stable since the start of 2013, with an FCA spokesman stating “we settled where we were on the eve of RDR coming in”.
The total number of financial advisers only fell by 385 to 21,496 in October, from 21,881 in January.
That puts the total down only 10 per cent from the estimated 23,787 advisers the regulator reported in summer 2012, but represents a 5 per cent increase since the end of 2012.
The FCA figures also showed a total of 1,906 stockbrokers and 1,698 discretionary investment managers with a statement of professional standing to offer investment advice in October.
With these, and some others, included, the total of RDR-approved advisers in the UK last month was 31,153.
This is down slightly on the figure of 32,690 retail investment advisers previously reported by the FCA in August last year, which itself was up 5.9 per cent from the number given at December 2012.
peter.walker@ft.com
