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UK: Financial conduct authority seeks to regulate consultants

By  |  January 9, 2017

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is seeking regulatory powers over investment consultants following a damning review of the sector.

The regulator has also called for an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the institutional investment advice sector to address what it sees as a lack of transparency and competition among providers. As part of its asset management market study, the FCA found that clients struggled to assess the quality of asset allocation advice, despite this being the most reliable indicator of performance.
The FCA said in its interim report into the study: “The CMA would be best placed to explore what impact the difficulties in assessing the quality of investment consultancy advice has on competition between investment consultants, the advice they offer and ultimately the returns investors receive.”

Full Content: Investment & Pensions Europe

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