The Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) has issued a call to action to its members, urging them to respond to the FCA’s fees consultation paper.
APFA is worried that the proposed FCA budget for 2013/14 does not reflect the relative risk posed by the sector nor the focus of the FCA’s own business plan. Financial advisers’ share of the bill is higher than that of life companies, general insurers or mortgage lenders, which does not match the FCA’s proposed work load, it claims.
Chris Hannant, policy director at APFA, said: “This is a consultation and we want advisers to write to the regulator and share their concerns over the impact increasing regulatory costs are having on their businesses. The more people that write to the FCA on this, the greater the chance there is of it listening.
“Given the implementation of the RDR, we do not believe that the current allocation properly reflects the risks that the advice sector presents. It doesn’t reflect the FCA’s own assessment of risk as reflected in its business plan. Furthermore, the FCA must take account of the reduced number of advisers and that continued increases in fees for advisers are unsustainable. We want the FCA to reconsider how it has allocated its costs.
“We appreciate many members won’t have submitted a response to a consultation before, so we have provided a suggested template and highlighted key areas of concern – as well as details of where to address responses to.”