11th March 2011
The Untouchables
"Wanna get rid of IFAs? Here's how you get them. They pull a knife, you pull a gun, they send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue. That's the Canary Wharf way, and that's how you get RDR through"
With a little poetic license from the famous Connery quote in the movie “The Untouchables”, the appearance of Sants and Nichols before the TSC on last Wednesday left one with an uneasy feeling that this whole process was being driven by a self assured reliance upon conveniently not available dodgy data, badly used and all “in the round”!!
Sheila Nichols seemed to find this whole process amusing, so much so that George Mudie MP said: “Do you find that amusing, Mrs Nicoll? The industry doesn't. ”!
The TSC session has at last started to create cracks in the FSA RDR shell that allows interesting glimpses inside. George Mudie MP asked Hector Sants if the RDR was a done deal. Yes came the reply, unless you can present the FSA with evidence to the contrary!
In reply to George Mudie’s point that “it is for the FSA to show the TSC evidence and not the other way around” Sants replied with an alarming degree of self assured arrogance that if you don’t like it then get Parliament to change FSMA because the FSA has been given these powers!
The TSC asked why is it that the FSA is spending �£1.7billion on RDR when at the same time the EU is reviewing the same areas and may well override elements of RDR. Sants & Nichols say it is because the FSA can’t wait for the EU!!! So the UK financial services industry could incur a cost of some �£1.7b because the FSA is impatient!
Garry Heath likened the FSA to the “Kraken” let loose on the country by way of Parliament poorly drafting the FSMA bill. If ever Parliament wanted a better example of the end result of poor drafting they need look no further than the FSA.
On the positive side, IFAs should take comfort from Hector Sants who has apologised for any offence caused by saying that losing 20 per cent of advisers as a result of RDR was acceptable. Was the apology because it was dealing with a heartfelt regret or because the 20% figure was inaccurate?
So what next?
Well I suspect that the TSC will be about to ask a whole load more questions of the FSA. Given what I have heard over the last week, the Fat Lady is not yet in the limo to the theatre.
Comments (2)
I would be interested to read the feeling of fellow IFA's on theses or any other RDR decisions with only 21 months left ...... and counting!!!
Mark 15/03/2011 10:19
Beside him Sheila Nicholl was rude and dismissive, and strangely found some of the session quite amusing. Her body language was a thorough disgrace, sat with arms folded in an entrenched position, displaying boredom and rudeness by clicking her pen into the microphone, constantly playing with her hair, or pouring water. Talk about somebody who did not want to be there, and in fact I am not sure she was really paying attention to what was being said.
I am confident that the members of the TSC saw through this inept and unsatisfactory performance by Sants and Nicoll and I look forward to seeing their report. In fairness so much of what was presented by the FSA failed to, in any way justify some of the actions they are introducing. The fight goes on and I am sure that the members of the TSC were disturbed by the entrenched positions being displayed and this will be reflected in their report.
Woodstock 15/03/2011 11:13
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