But that’s enough alliteration, let’s get stuck into the five most important things on the site during the last five days:
1. Mortgages back on the agenda.
On Monday and Wednesday, the who’s who of the mortgage lending industry descended on Westminster for two separate conferences, debating all the relevant issues of the day.
FTAdviser’s intrepid reporter was covering both, coming back with news of a forthcoming Financial Conduct Authority review into market competition, with a particular focus on what can be done to increase growth in the equity release space.
At the day hosted by the FCA, the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ chairman Moray McDonald had the cheek to give the regulator - along with the rest of the industry - a ‘must do better’ report card, especially with regard to first-time-buyers.
Later in the week, at a Westminster Business Forum-hosted morning, the FCA’s technical mortgage specialist Keith Hale, gave his overview of forthcoming changes, paying particular attention to what the EU Mortgage Credit Directive will mean for those currently advising on second charge mortgages.
Of course the MMR was never far from debate, with a man from RBS arguing that it was only now that lenders were able to think again about product innovation following a year-and-a-half of concentrating on compliance.
2. Sesame’s saga continues...
Also on Wednesday, Sesame Bankhall Group confirmed the results of its strategic business review, the most newsworthy being head of mortgages John Cupis’ departure after eight years leading that side of the business.
Within hours of the announcement, he had popped up as the new mortgage director of rival firm Openwork, completing the restructuring of their core distribution business.
Back at Sesame Bankhall Group, managing director Stephen Gazard will be supported by Lisa Martin, currently director of operations and sales, who is taking on the expanded role as director of mortgages.
3. ...while the pension minister reveals her true colours.
News broke this week that the Conservative-appointed pensions minister Ros Altmann was in-fact still a member of the Labour party.
We dug a bit deeper into the initial story, to get the Department for Work and Pensions pointing out that as a policy adviser previously she had taken up membership of three major parties.
“The story here is surely that despite the Labour Party boasting of its scrupulous checking they still sent a Conservative Minister a voting form,” commented a DWP spokesman.
Ms Altmann herself came out on Twitter the following day to deny that she had voted in the Labour leadership election and confirm the DWP line, with our editor today stating that surely it is better to have a minister concentrating more on the subject of pensions than party politics.
4. Mixed fortunes for multi-asset.
Sister title Investment Adviser started the week with a piece on questions surrounding two of the retail market’s largest absolute return funds, the £25.8bn Standard Life Investment’s Gars and £9.5bn Newton Real Return fund, after they failed to deliver during the recent market downturn.
The vehicles both ranked among the poorest performing absolute return funds in the period between this year’s high in global markets on 10 April and the bottom reached on August 24, notwithstanding the disparate nature of portfolios in the sector.
The true diversification of such funds has been up for debate in recent years, with new funds launching all the time boasting various different ways to avoid correlation and volatility through multi-asset strategies.
Just this week, two major players launched new offerings - Prudential with a five-strong range of risk-managed funds designed to complement its existing £800m Dynamic Portfolio range - and HSBC Global Asset Management adding three new global multi-asset funds.
5. Adviser liability is a liability for the industry.
Finally, you really can’t fault the man for persistence, as the Association of Professional Financial Advisers’ director general Chris Hannant was once again telling the powers that be about the core problem for this market; liability.
Giving evidence to the work and pensions select committee as part of its inquiry into whether the pension freedoms advice and guidance system is working, he commented: “From my perspective the number one thing is the liability that attaches itself to advice.”
The trade body’s work on achieving a long-stop for client claims has been well-documented, so one wonders whether things might finally be turning a corner on the issue and the powers that be will actually act to limit your liability.
peter.walker@ft.com
