Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today published a document which provides a detailed overview of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) which was launched by the Financial Services Authority, the predecessor body of the FCA, in 2006.
The review has been published just a matter of days subsequent to the FCA having embarked on a senior level restructure in order to address the requirements and interests of customers within the modern financial markets structure in the UK.
The rules aimed to make the retail investment market work better for consumers, raising the minimum level of adviser qualifications, improved the transparency of charges and services and removed commission payments to advisers and platforms from product providers.
While developing the RDR proposals the FCA committed to undertaking a post-implementation review to help the regulatory authority determine the extent to which the RDR was delivering the outcomes it was designed to achieve.
The majority of rules were required to be implemented by the end of 2012. As almost two years have passed since RDR implementation, the FCA has commenced the first phase of the post-implementation review and commissioned external consultants, Europe Economics, to undertake the review so as to ensure its independence.
The first phase of the post-implementation review aims to indicate the extent to which the RDR is on course to deliver its original aims and to flag any immediate issues, rather than definitively evaluate whether or not all of the expected impacts of the RDR have materialised, which will take much longer.
The full document can be viewed by clicking here.