We end the week by learning the Brexit talks are going nowhere fast – a fact which could have been written at any point in the past year.
So if you want to find out what is actually new, here’s the week in news.
1) We didn’t start the fire
Any advisers out there hoping their vote to leave the European Union last year would be the spark to start a “bonfire of regulations” might end up being disappointed.
This week the Financial Conduct Authority’s Christopher Woolard said that even after the UK left the EU it would have to abide by the same international standards.
He said the “Singapore-on-Thames” model of cutting regulation to attract business was a fallacy since Singapore’s regulatory regime is just as tough as Britain’s and money in the financial services sector “tends to have a flight to quality”.
His words were echoed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond the next day, who said consumers paid a high price for deregulation before the financial crisis of 2008.
2) Scottish Widow ties the knot with eligible Swiss partner
Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to buy Zurich’s UK workplace pensions and savings business, bringing in a juicy £15bn of assets under administration (as well as 500,000 customers – some of whom happen to be employed by the Financial Times).
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will also see Zurich receive exclusive distribution rights for group life protection to certain corporate clients of Lloyds Banking Group’s commercial banking services.
It will also broaden Scottish Widows’ participation in the large pension scheme sector, with master trust and group self-invested personal pension solutions.
Zurich, for its part, is making plans to grow its group risk market by focusing on smaller businesses after securing exclusive distribution rights to Lloyds’ corporate clients.
3) Advice may have been a load of old Toffee
Former Rangers manager Walter Smith has launched a court bid to claw back cash invested during his time as boss of Everton in the Premier League.
The 69-year-old Ibrox legend has started proceedings against high-profile financial adviser Neil Caisley at the Court of Session.
The former Scotland manager is suing him over money paid into a pension fund while he was in charge of Everton in the 1990s.
Mr Caisley describes himself as a financial adviser and his page on business networking site LinkedIn listed Mr Smith among high-profile ex-players and managers described as his clients.
Other clients listed included strikers Duncan Ferguson, Andrei Kanchelskis, Ian Wright and Paulo Wanchope.
4) Hargreaves take down
Famous shrinking violet Alan Miller has been uncharacteristically vocal about some aspect of fund management this week.
His latest beef is with Hargreaves Lansdown’s widely watched list of top 150 funds which he criticised for how it measures the performance of those investments it endorses.
He said the analysis he conducted showed, on average, funds picked by Hargreaves Lansdown would have come 49th out of the top 100 funds across all sectors, ranked by performance.
For its part, Hargreaves Lansdown inevitably disagreed with this and said that since its launch in 2003 its fund selections have on average outperformed their peer groups, exceeded the returns of comparative tracker funds and beaten the most relevant benchmark indices.
5) Ambulance chasers caught with their pants down
Claim management companies are cross-selling their books to pension scammers, according to Michelle Cracknell, chief executive of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS).
Speaking at FTAdviser’s Unpackaging Pensions event last week, Mr Cracknell said the guidance body received several calls from people that had previously been in contact with someone from a payment protection insurance (PPI) firm and are now being cold called by pension scammers.
At the same event Caroline Mitchell, lead ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, has hit back at claims her organisation is inconsistent in its judgements.
damian.fantato@ft.com
