22nd June 2010

"Your turn No. 5 get ready to listen"- Derek Bradley, PanaceaIFA.com

Even before the lights dim out at the FSA offices in London's Canary Wharf, another new regulatory body is now in incubation. Last Wednesday night at the Mansion House, the Chancellor George Osborne, announced the establishment of a powerful new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA), which will regulate the conduct of every authorised financial firm providing services to consumers.

The CPMA, he says, will be "responsible for ensuring the good conduct of business in the UK's retail and wholesale financial services, in order to preserve our reputation for transparency and efficiency as well as our position as one of the world's leading global financial centres."

There's nothing terribly new so far. Many IFAs will have seen regulation pass from NASDIM to FIMBRA to PIA and then to the FSA, and now to the CPMA - five regulators in some 25 years.

Following on from previous bulletin Number 4, your time is up!, Derek Bradley, ceo of Panacea.com, issued this statement last week in response to the Chancellor's Mansion House speech:

"From my discussions with members of Panacea.com in recent months, it seems to us that at times the FSA became a narrow and possibly confused regulator, almost entirely focused on rules based regulation, then changing to principles based and back again to rules based rather than adopting a listening approach to the issues IFAs were raising about the practicalities of implementation. We look forward to working with the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority in a collaborative way that does not create costs for costs sake or regulation for regulation sake. IFAs would like to concentrate on what they do best, which is to spend as much time as possible in advising their clients in a cost efficient way."

And finally ... The Chancellor also condemned the failings of the FSA in his Mansion House speech, saying, "The FSA became a narrow regulator, almost entirely focused on rules based regulation. No-one was controlling levels of debt, and when the crunch came no one knew who was in charge. Some lessons have been learnt and some changes made, and I commend those who have led this process.

But despite the changes that have been made, Bradley is still not confident that the fundamental problems of culture and regulatory structure have been confronted.

For IFAs strong and united representation is needed to ensure that their voices of considerable experience have the attention of those involved in setting out the framework for the CPMA to operate within. With Chris Cummings leaving the AIFA soon, who will have the strength, authority and drive to work in the interests of IFAs to ensure that fairness for ALL remains an integral part of regulation?

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