Letter to New Model Adviser publication

Unplugged Banks Applauds Japan's Positive Spirit

I was interested to read your piece reporting comments from Caroline Banks in your 9 June issue.

 

In particular I echo her comments that "staff at the FSA needed more experience in the field" and that she would "send most people at the FSA on secondment".

 

No doubt she will be delighted to hear the FSA are actively searching for IFA firms willing to receive their employees on secondment visits.

 

I agreed to such a visit which took place over a number of days in April and was very rewarding from all perspectives. In this instance my secondee did not spend time hunting for regulatory breaches etc, but rather made a sustained and genuine effort to understand the way we work and how we run our business. We also benefited from some very helpful feedback on ideas for ways of potentially improving our systems and processes. 

 

I would encourage your readers to agree to receive FSA staff on secondment. After all, if we as an industry maintain existing levels of distrust, how on earth are the FSA ever going to get this valuable experience and learn how to regulate more appropriately. The relevant FSA webpage for those interested is:

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/small_firms/secondments.shtml

 

I would be interested to hear of others who have received FSA secondments and their experiences.

 

Kind regards

 

Robin Keyte

 

Dr R W Keyte  -  Director, Chartered Financial Planner & CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER CM      
Towers of Taunton (Financial Services) Ltd

 

Response from Richard Lander at New Model Adviser:

 

Robin

Many thanks for this indeed and I will make sure we use this. Had never heard of this scheme and the FSA never responded to Caroline's piece!

Richard
Citywire Financial Publishers Ltd