|
|
John Griffith-Jones, Chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), delivered a speech at The Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) Annual Gala Dinner delivered at Banking Hall, London.
“Out of potential adversity comes opportunity. So, we both share the common and urgent aim of helping consumers to achieve their financial goals and to plan for their long term futures. For many people, the best way to do this will be through the assistance of an advisor. It is perhaps because the industry is so important that we have been talking about ways it could be improved for so long, and that so much well intentioned (and for the most part good natured) debate has been generated.
It is now over eight years since my predecessors (officially) began talking about the need for a collective shift away from product and provider bias, toward an appropriately regulated distribution system. We as your regulator must be big enough to admit that we may not always get it completely right, and that when we don’t, we make sure we listen to common sense.
In the past five years we have seen significant change - in the main for the better – from an industry where there was reliance by many advisory firms on product providers for remuneration by commission, for training and for other support, to one that is more resilient, and more transparent with its customers in terms of price and services. In many respects the early days of change were all about distribution, hence the name, Retail Distribution Review, however alongside these changes we have seen an equally significant shift toward an industry with increased standards of professionalism.
This is important, because the old FSA always saw the RDR as creating the framework for the industry to turn itself into a profession. We are seeing this transformation happening in practice, and we want to support and encourage this transformation. And for us, when we talk about professionalism, we mean something more than just professional qualifications and certificates. Rather we mean a state of mind that dictates how you conduct yourself and how you conduct your firm when dealing with customers. We have all learnt somewhat painfully from the banking sector that tone at the top is no substitute for tone at the till in the eyes of the public.”