Spot the phoenix

Call me simple, but does not a new firm have to make an application to the FCA in the normal way? Is it really that hard to see that the new application on their desk has the same adviser names as a firm that last week did a runner?

Presently the FCA seems to be sinking with applications for credit for the likes of plumbers/boiler installers (yes, you read that right – we have handled several because the process is the same as a routine financial adviser), and they are equally sinking with applications from advisers leaving networks and heading for DA territory.

They might be more successful at identifying the phoenixing issue if they got a little more organised and gained time to be more focused. As an example, just why does it take anywhere from six months to a year to get an adviser in a network authorised on a direct basis? Every adviser post-RDR carries an SPS – surely that should be transferable. If not, then just what is the point of an SPS? Why would an adviser be deemed sound on a Friday afternoon in a network and yet not so come Monday morning?

Dealing in a far more streamlined manner with applications that by nature are routine would allow the FCA to just possibly see someone who is phoenixing and which by their own admission they struggle to recognise.

Ian McIver

Head of sales,

IFA Compliance