'Positive response' to dropping audit for FSA firms
Proposals to drop audit requirement for some FSA-regulated firms gets positive response
Proposals to remove the audit requirements for an estimated 3,200 firms
regulated by the Financial Services Authority have received a ‘positive
response’, according to the FSA.
The proposal, which the FSA aims to implement with cooperation from the DTI
‘as soon as possible’, could save the 3,200 financial advisers and 1,490
appointed representatives £12.9m a year.
‘We are challenging regulations whose costs outweigh the benefits they bring,
and our work with the DTI to extend the audit exemption will bring firms that
are limited companies in line with partnerships and sole traders,’ said Stephen
Bland, director of small firms at the FSA.
In September 2005 the DTI amended the Companies Act to exempt small FSA
authorised firms and ARs that only undertake mortgage and general insurance
business from an audit.