Who said regulation would reduce??

I am not sure that I have ever known a quarters time period (the one coming at the end of 2012) when so much regulation and legislation comes into being in the UK retail financial services world. I have nearly lost track of all of the changes and I have summarised these headlines below for your consideration. Some of these changes may not have a direct impact on your circumstances, but it is always interesting how changes work their way through the various systems and manifest themselves later down the line.

This is not an exhaustive list, but gives an indicative feel of some of the differences we will experience in the near future.

Workplace Pensions / Auto-Enrolment start in October 2012

The first wave of large UK businesses are now enroling for Workplace Pensions (sometimes called Auto-Enrolment), with ‘Staging Dates’ declared for all employers, starting with the largest companies and working through to the smallest over the coming four years or so.

With Workplace Pensions now implemented at the start of October 2012, knowing what is required for your business and planning what resources (both time and contributions) need to be deployed should be a priority in making sure that your business is ready to meet the requirements of this new legislation. The Pensions Regulators website is very helpful in detailing these staging dates as they are known, and there is a link to this detail from our website, www.chaptersfinancial.com.

Equalisation of Annuity/Insurance rates between the sexes in late December 2012

In March 2011, there was much press about a European Law being passed (now called Test-Achats European Court Ruling) about abandoning the differential between male and female rates for insurance (and alike) risks/terms. My understanding is that their ruling (and I am not a lawyer) is based on the argument that the current gender based regime is discriminatory because there is overlap between men and women in the ages at which most people die. Obviously, there are opposing views to this argument and its subsequent studies and the European Court would rule accordingly on 01 March 2011, which has now been confirmed.

The now confirmed ruling is due to take effect in December (21st) of 2012 and the hullabaloo that kicked off all those months ago soon died down because its real effects would not be felt until months later. Time has now passed and those months are now turning into weeks, with I am sure much media ‘verbage’ to commence in the very near future.

End of Commission Sales for Financial Advice from end December 2012

The Financial Services Authority's (FSA) Retail Distribution Review (or RDR for short) has been many months and years in the planning and will be implemented at the very end of 2012.

Consumers need to be aware that these regulation changes and their effects on the delivery of UK retail financial services to the public will be significant. The FSA has started a process of raising the profile of the changes and we have also started to see the press joining in the process. I have no doubt that there will be much page space allocated to the topic over the autumn and winter months of 2012. It is important that those seeking financial advice know what these changes mean for them and the choices they will be provided into the future.

The FSA has produced a consumer information document as a guide to the changes and to start the process of educating those seeking financial advice of what to expect in the future. This can be found at the following web-link here: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/pubs/consumer_info/rdr-consumer-guide.pdf

Change of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from January 2013

I am sure we will see a lot more publicity of this change as it gets closer. In June 2010 the Government announced new regulatory arrangements for the future. These include the creation of the Financial Conduct Authority (or FCA for short), which plans to apply a new approach to consumer protection, building on existing changes already instigated, but taking them still further. The changes will see the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), within the Bank of England, being responsible for protecting the stability of the financial system as a whole and macro-prudential regulation. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) as it will become known, will be a subsidiary of the Bank of England, with the responsibility of supervising deposit takers, insurers and a small number of significant investment firms.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be responsible for regulating conduct in retail and wholesale markets, supervising the trading infrastructure that supports those markets.

I am sure we will hear much more on this subject in the coming weeks as the changes come to fruition.

Summary

Change usually generates opportunity and I am sure that this will be the case for some of the points and changes noted above. We live in interesting times and we will continue to work with you and changes in legislation to meet our clients and enquirers requirements. No individual advice has been provided during the content of this Blog and Chapters Financial Limited can help you with your financial planning, in all its many formats, into the future, continuing to provide the independent financial advice enjoyed by our clients since 2004.

We look forward to working with you into 2013 and beyond.

Chapters Financial is not responsible for the content of external webpages.

Keith Churchouse, FPFS, Chartered Financial Planner, ISO22222 Personal Financial Planner

Chapters Financial Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, number 402899.