The Financial Conduct Authority’s Regdata system has been restored after a number of IFAs faced issues accessing it.
Earlier this morning (January 3), advisers took to Twitter after they were unable to access the RegData system.
Nick Lincoln, owner of Values to Vision Financial Planning, said the system is supposed to be open from 7am to 10pm on weekdays and until 5pm at weekends but claimed it was not open for “the last three days at least”.
“They [the FCA] send you an email saying you must do this so you try and log in to do it and you can't get in. It's just a bit annoying," he said.
Lincoln said individuals can check on the FCA website to see if the regulator is carrying out maintenance work as sometimes the website can be down for that reason.
However, he said: “I checked on the page and there's no notifications or any maintenance so that wasn't an excuse.
“It's just the whole treating customers fairly, we are their customers.”
Likewise, Ivor Harper, director of Park Financial, said: “If the FCA are going to send out emails advising us that returns are available for submission, don't embarrass yourselves (and waste advisers time) by doing so when your website is unavailable.
“To be honest, it's a minor inconvenience but it's symptomatic of a wider malaise at the regulator.”
FTAdviser understands that the FCA’s RegData system does not update the uploaded data during the day and the FCA takes the system down each night to update the following as batches:
- update firm profiles and reporting schedules
- ensure data consistency between RegData and other FCA data
- generate reminder and late fees notifications.
This helps the FCA ensure the integrity of the data and system.
A spokesperson for the regulator said: “An issue was identified which meant that users were unable to access RegData for a period. Access to the service was restored from 8:30 this morning.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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