FeesJul 1 2021

FCA confirms adviser fees will increase to £82m

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FCA confirms adviser fees will increase to £82m

The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed that advisers will pay £82m towards the regulator's fees for the coming year.

In a policy statement published today (July 1), the FCA confirmed advisers would pay 1.5 per cent more than they did in 2020-21. 

To be precise the adviser contribution to the annual funding requirement (AFR) for 2021-22 comes to £82.3m, up from the £81.1m collected in the previous year. 

But it rowed back on another of its previous proposals.

In its consultation paper, published back in April, the FCA proposed a new periodic flat fee of £250 for each appointed representative, which would have seen it raise an additional £10m of funding.

But following feedback the FCA has reduced its introducer appointed representative fee to £75 with the £250 fee now only applying to full ARs. 

This will reduce the amount of funding it expects to raise from ARs from £10m to £7.2m. 

This in turn has led the FCA to revise its overall budget from £616.5m, as proposed in April, to £613.7m.

This is still an increase of £23.8m (4 per cent) from the previous year.

The regulator has kept its commitment to continue to extend the time medium and small firms have for paying fees from two months to 90 days.

This means that 88 per cent of firms will have until the end of 2021 to pay their fees and levies, it said. Larger firms will be expected to pay their fees under the usual payment terms.

Advice firms will now be invoiced from July 2021 onwards for their 2021/22 periodic fees and levies. 

amy.austin@ft.com

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