In the finance world, complaints against advisers dominated headlines as historic claims increased and claims management companies are targeting British Steel workers. It’s time for the week in news.
1 Regulation's the name of the game
The FCA has confirmed it is open to changing its regulation if the results of its advice market review showed current rules are hampering innovation or failing to deliver the best consumer outcomes.
Speaking with FTAdviser Nisha Arora, director of consumer and retail policy at the FCA, said the City-watchdog was open to looking at whether its regulation needed to be changed if found it was "skewing" the advice market.
When asked if the FCA had seen any evidence in the market to spark concern, Ms Arora said the regulator was not approaching the review with any "preconceptions", but the concerns echo those seen in the FCA's Mortgages Market Study published in March.
There the FCA found some consumers were being "unnecessarily" channeled into advice.
Meanwhile FCA chief Andrew Bailey has broadcast his first podcast. He used the opportunity to say he very much wanted advisers to make a profit, contrary to popular belief (and, some say, regulatory policy).
2 The past can come back to bite you
The number of complaints against advisers submitted to the Fos have increased by 14 per cent last year, with historic claims seeing a rise of 13 per cent, latest data from the ombudsman has shown.
The number of historic complaints against advisers, where the event being complained about happened more than 15 years ago, jumped from 271 claims to 307.
Self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) topped the list of the most complained about products against IFAs, with the ombudsman resolving 232 complaints with an uphold rate of 62 per cent.
Caroline Wayman, chief ombudsman and chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service, called on advisers to ensure consumers were making the right pension choices.
3 Robo is a no go
Investec this week decided to close its Click and Invest robo-advice business following two years of losses.
In the company’s annual results, the firm said Click and Invest lost £12.8m in the year to the end of March 2019, having lost £13.5m in the year to the end of March 2018.
The company stated a lack of appetite for the service and slow market growth as being the reason for the move.
Clients will be offered to sell their investments or transfer them to another provider without charge and the management fee has also been suspended throughout this transition period.
4 Targets of steel
Advisers who helped steelworkers transfer out of the British Steel Pension Scheme are now being targeted by claims management companies.
Damian McPhun, partner at Beale and Company Solicitors, told FTAdviser he had several adviser clients who have had a complaint against them taken to the Fos with the help of CMCs.
He explained that during the British Steel debacle the names of some of the IFAs involved became public knowledge, which has drawn the attention of CMCs.
Mr McPhun said the CMCs had got their hands on a list of clients before advertising in local papers, getting their names out in the public eye and targeting British Steel workers.
5 A flat fall for platforms
Sales across both the advised and retail platform industry fell by 43 per cent in the year to the end of March 2019, according to data compiled by Fundscape.
Net new sales in the first quarter of this year totalled £7.8bn, which is the lowest quarterly level since 2013, which was the first quarter after the Retail Distribution Review rules came into force.
Bella Caridade-Ferreira, chief executive of Fundscape, said: "Stock markets soared in the first quarter taking platform assets with them, but the uplift in assets was undermined by the industry’s lowest net sales since we were struggling with RDR in the first quarter of 2013.
"Uncertainty is the key factor. Brexit was supposed to be done by now and investors are waiting for the outlook to clear before opting back into the market."
imogen.tew@ft.com
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