Biba blog: A momentous year

And so another Biba Conference has been put to bed and life returns to ‘normal’. While the nation’s attention is turning towards the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympic games, my attention will remain focused on several key regulatory developments, together with the European leg of Bruce Springsteen’s world tour.

This year is indeed a momentous one and several regulatory developments are likely to play their part. A leaked copy of an early draft of the revised Insurance Mediation Directive gives a clear indication of the European Commission’s approach to the old chestnut of commission disclosure.

Commission disclosure

If the final text, which we expect to see in published form in late May or early June, is unchanged, commission disclosure will become a reality across Europe by the end of the decade. While the published text will take many months to progress through the European Parliament, the clear political will in Brussels is for transparency and changes are unlikely.

While these issues come to a head, we continue to work tirelessly in our efforts to promote a more appropriate, proportionate and cost-effective regulatory environment for members’

Late last year the FSA promised that it would consult on changes to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) funding model during the first half of 2012. The end of the first half is rapidly approaching and we understand the FSA is preparing a publication. While the levy for insurance intermediaries has reduced from £69m to £36m and the soon to be received FSA fee and levy demands will reflect this reduction, the underlying argument for change remains strong and Biba will continue to make the case for change.

Client money rules

Before summer is out, the FSA will have published its consultation paper on changes to the client money rules, together with new rules. The process undertaken by the FSA in this review has been a new one for the regulator. Rather than publish a discussion paper, the FSA attended a number of broker ‘forums’ during the spring – from Glasgow to Birmingham, Leeds to Bristol, Manchester to several in London while managing to engage several hundred firms in informal discussions along the way. All the attendees I have spoken to found great value in the process and expressed the hope that the Financial Conduct Authority will use this approach more often in its policy development work.

While these issues come to a head, we continue to work tirelessly in our efforts to promote a more appropriate, proportionate and cost-effective regulatory environment for members. A recent meeting with Andrew Tyrie MP, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, could prove helpful in this regard.

So, as I said earlier, life returns to normal. Now all I need is for Ticketmaster to send my Springsteen tickets!