Alliance aims to cut FSA fees
ICAS accountants keen to retain investment business have set up an alliance with a financial services provider in a bid to cut the cost of regulation by the Financial Services Authority.
The alliance will open for business on 1 December, the same day the FSA becomes the UK’s main watchdog for investment business.
It will mean that accountancy firms will work as go-betweens or ‘introducers’ between clients seeking investment advice and DPB Financial Services, an FSA-registered division of Henderson Loggie, a Dundee-based accountancy practice.
Bruce Candlish, a London-based ICAS accountant and anchor man for the project, said: ‘At the start, the initiative will be targeted at those firms which do not wish to become directly regulated by the FSA or become appointed representatives of an independent financial adviser or network.
‘It will ensure that members retain ownership of their clients’ business, rather than handing it over to a third party.’
Meanwhile, the FSA has warned that it has only received applications from half the number of firms that were expected to register.
If firms miss the 31 October deadline they could breach the new rules on investment advice, and will have to pay a £5,000 application fee.
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