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The Chartered Insurance Institute has published details of its proposed alternative assessment to written QCF level four exams. The current alternative assessment model is still being developed but is expected [...]

Tax Incentivised Savings Association is inviting companies to join its committee to drive platform-to-platform re-registration. Tisa established the committee to provide a forum for all interested parties last October using [...]

As emerging markets become more sophisticated the demand for top financial advice opens doors in the UK While the UK waits in vain for the quarterly growth figures to signal [...]

Stadia Trustees has launched a Sipp that it claims is 'RDR-ready'. Stadia's Essential Sipp aims to promote the treating customers fairly initiative and offer access to cost-efficient electronic trading methods. [...]

IFA firm Rutherford Wilkinson has achieved CII chartered status. The Newcastle-upon-Tyne based firm joined IFA consolidators Perspective Financial Group Ltd in December 2008. Ian Wilkinson, managing director of Rutherford Wilkinson, [...]

One in five IFA firms have no idea what financial impact the retail distribution review will have on their businesses, according to the Association of IFAs. Of the fifth of [...]

The Chartered Insurance Institute said it was encouraged to see the Securities & Investment Institute granted the Royal Charter. David Ross, head of media relations at the CII, said it [...]

The Chartered Insurance Institute has revised its requirements for achieving chartered status and revealed it wants one in 10 adviser firms to achieve the ranking. Steve Jenkins, director of financial [...]

The Financial Services Skills Council has formed a sub-committee specifically to address the issues raised by the government in its relicensing review. The FSSC failed to get its licence to [...]

The IFA firms that survive the current economic turmoil will be the ones capable of meeting the retail distribution review requirements in 2012, according to Andrew Fisher, chief executive of [...]

Providers must ensure product design is simple and charges are straightforward and transparent, according to Andy Curran, intermediated distribution director of Prudential. Mr Curran told an audience of industry experts [...]

It is not just the advice sector where a higher degree of competency is in demand, back office support staff will also need benchmark skills, which is where the CII's [...]

The remit of many of the professional bodies seems to be not just to monitor those already in financial services, but to expand the reach further, and raise the standards [...]

Sesame document pushes for QCA Level 4 as industry standard The UK financial advice industry faces 'irreparable damage' if it does not kick out advisers who do not possess adequate [...]

CII, IFP, CIOBS and SII agree on a set of principles to raise industry standards ahead of the RDR . Stefanie Ives Four of the leading training and qualifications bodies [...]

Origo, the standards body for e-commerce in the UK financial services industry, has received approval to deliver standards for full mortgage application, mortgage tracking and product data by the end [...]

The passing of standards by Origo, the technical standards body that gets IFAs' back office systems talking to providers system in the mortgage sector, came out with barely a fanfare. [...]

The laptop theft has sparked concern about the security procedures of product providers. Although the AGBP980,000 fine has been described variously as a 'rap across the knuckles' and 'peanuts' for [...]

Certainly the Financial Services Skills Council seems to be giving value for money. It is rolling out pilot schemes on new accreditations towards the end of next year, a move [...]

RBS Intermediary Partners has become the latest lender to sign up to Origo's mortgage e-standards initiative. Origo's initiative is supported by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries. RBS is the 15th [...]

THE FINANCIAL Services Skills Council claims it has responded to a need for a major overhaul of retail financial services standards. According to the council, the need for a serious [...]

There is no doubt that a growing number of financial advisers are seeking professional status in an attempt to shrug off the 'sell, sell, sell' connotations of an old financial [...]

The Financial Services Skills Council has developed new standards on advising and dealing in investments. The fresh exam guide, which comes following the FSSC's third review of previous appropriate examination, [...]

For years we have had a range of qualifications and a welter of trainers helping financial advisers to achieve them. Now it looks that these trainers can apply for a [...]

Raising standards is a phrase that everybody working in the financial services industry has become familiar with over the past few years. In particular, strengthening standards of professionalism has been [...]

THE FSSC and IFAs have responded to David Blunkett's warning that Europe would fail the skills challenge posed by countries such as India and China unless it recognised the need [...]

SHODDY service from product providers is the main problem facing IFAs' businesses, according to a survey. The European Federation of Financial Advisers & Financial Intermediaries' Europe-wide poll of 1000 IFAs [...]

Now that final agreement has been made on the ISO 22222 standard Ai the international standard for financial planners Ai the next stage can get under way. As it has [...]

IN life and certainly in business, you will often find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Many common business aspirations such as becoming your own boss and [...]

ORIGO, the e-commerce organisation, has vowed to extend its compliance standards rulebook to the mortgage industry. The organisation, responsible for briefing software companies on IFA compliance requirements, said it would [...]

Aifa has reasserted its support of commission-based advice in the face of a critical BBC radio programme that claimed commission created bias. The report, part of the Radio 4 Money [...]

Are you confident that you meet the trading standards set out by the FSA? It seems that since the regulation change we are all under pressure to prove our worth. [...]

I will soon have clocked up three months with the Association of Independent Financial Advisers. Do I regret my move from the Financial Services Authority? Not a bit of it. [...]

WILL the misery of with profits bonds savers never end? This scandal is yet another example of how the financial services industry confused savers with misleading marketing and too little [...]

The Financial Services Consumer Panel is urging the industry to find an alternative to commission. Setting out its agenda for the Financial Services Forum, which met for the first time [...]

HARGREAVES Lansdown claims it has become the first annuity provider to adopt Origo standards for quotes that will reduce telephone research and save time. Financial services standards body Origo created [...]

THE risk of IFAs and providers falling short of the FSA's Treating Customers Fairly standards is significant, according to Barclays. Andrew Podd, compliance director for Barclays, said a company's response [...]

THE FSA has conceded there is a loophole which allows financial service companies to communicate misleading information through press releases. Providers have called for standards to govern the information about [...]

NEW accounting standards affecting pensions came into force on 1 January. The International Financial Reporting Standards bring European company pension reporting rules into line with US standards, according to Michael [...]

THE financial services industry has been weakened by poor recruitment consultants, according to IFA Mark Osland. He said agency recruitment consultants were a 'necessary evil' and were often 'only interested [...]

THE gay community is putting together a discrimination watchdog to make sure financial services standards are not homophobic. Chris Morgan, managing director of London-based Compass Independent Financial Advisers, said the [...]

YOU may have seen the pretty coloured boxes advertised by the Institute of Financial Services in the financial papers, and wondered it is all about. The IFS has developed a [...]

CHIEF executives have been warned against offering excessive inducements to intermediaries. The bosses of the UK's leading product providers were told by the FSA that pay-offs to intermediaries in exchange [...]

THE Life Insurance Association is putting itself through a major overhaul in its bid to become a champion of IFAs and a flagship for professional standards. The five-year business plan, [...]

AT the heart of the long-term future of the regulation of the financial services industry -- and in particular the IFA sector -- is the issue of training and competence. [...]

Specialist investment adviser Brooks Macdonald has threatened to shun fund managers who demand greater disclosure from advisers. The move follows suggestions from UK asset managers that intermediaries and nominee account [...]

BRADFORD & Bingley Group is reviewing its in-house training procedures for advisers. The firm confirmed it was looking at its training programme, methods and benchmarking staff examination results against the [...]

The Financial Ombudsman Service wants IFAs to examine their relationships with clients when dealing with precipice bonds cases. It has told firms they should look at the way that they [...]

The FSA is asking senior executives at financial services firms to review business continuity standards. The regulator has worked closely with the Treasury, the Bank of England and the financial [...]

PAUL Chatfield ('Say no to exams before its too late', FA 19 Sep) believes financial advisers with Financial Planning Certificate 1, 2, 3 and CeMap are fully qualified and likens [...]