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All FSA staff should be qualified: Bloom
04 August 2010
All Financial Services Authority (FSA) should be required to hold at least the level one Financial Practising Certificate. In an interview with FTAdviser.com, Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and a consultant to lobby group Adviser Alliance also said he wanted an end to FSA investigations which look at whether advisers are treating customers fairly. Mr Bloom said "FSA staff should have at least the Financial Practicing Certificate level one and three qualifications and three to four years experience as a financial adviser. "Anyone without those qualification is in not position to say what treating customers fairly would be. "For advisers, explaining advice to some one who is unqualified is extremely time consuming. "The problem with the FSA is the approach that it takes. "You have to start from the premise that most practices are not rogue." Mr Bloom called for the FSA to regulate products rather than the sale of products. He suggested the FSA give approval to selected products and advisers could receive a two per cent commission and half percent trail on those products. This would mean the sale of the product would not need to be regulated and it would lesen compliance costs for advisers. Mr Bloom said he did not expect the new regulatory structure, which was announced by the government last month, to be any different to the existing structure. He said: "Hector Sants is going to still be the head. "All the same people are going to be there, drawing the same salaries. "They will give it a new name but it won't be any different." Published by FTAdviser.com
