The consultancy Navigant is urging the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to reject calls to delay implementing the retail distributor review (RDR) in the UK by a year.
The proposal comes from the Treasury Select Committee, which said this week that a delay would help investment advisers prepare for the new rules.
However, Navigant said a delay would penalise those firms that have already invested in preparing for the regulation, which is designed to protect retail investors by making adviser fees more transparent and removing commission on investment products.
“Many of our clients have put aside a lot of resource and investment to prepare for the RDR as a priority,” said Kenn Taylor, director of financial services at the company. “A twelve month delay of the whole package of reforms would be unwelcome, not least because these preparations have been building momentum and in some cases are in full swing.”
Navigant said that instead of delaying the RDR beyond its scheduled launch date of 1 January 2013, the FSA could “phase in” some elements, such as qualifications for advisers, in order to help those advisers and smaller firms that are not prepared.
©2011 funds europe
