Browse all articles across people aspects of regulation and people development within UK financial services
Since last April, there is no doubt that interest in occupational pension transfers has increased. Those with defined benefit occupational pensions have asked more questions of their advisers; the market is asking advisers to provide assistance.
With today’s financial services businesses facing ever fiercer regulatory scrutiny, insurance companies of all types and sizes face a pressing need to invest in the knowledge and the skills of their employees to keep themselves compliant across all areas of their operations.
The budget announcement of the new Lifetime ISA, poses some interesting challenges. The government bonus of 25% to help people is aimed at those under the age of 40 wanting to save for retirement or to buy their first home.
The Prudential Regulation Authority [PRA] news update on 7 March 2016 appeared rather stark and just a simple matter of fact, nothing important………move on. But the simple sentence “The Senior Managers Regime and Senior Insurance Managers Regime have now been implemented” hides the panic in certain circles.
A few years back nobody had even heard of cyber risk. Now it’s widely considered to be one of – if not the – biggest threats facing companies of all shapes and sizes around the world.
A recent survey of mortgage brokers shows that eight out of ten fear buy to let mortgage regulation and although the Council of Mortgage Lenders [CML] may be “disappointed that the Treasury has found it necessary to make a U-turn on buy to let” the reality is that it is coming!
The brief for this article is simple, something of interest for institutional firms rather than having a retail focus. This gives us the opportunity to consider the issues for whole asset managers and investment banking, and in many instances allows retail firms to sit back and think how lucky we are.
I couldn’t put a figure on how many IFAs have decided to become qualified at level6 for pensions because of the influence of chartered status for themselves or through their firm, but I’m sure it will continue to grow in the coming years.
Having pontificated on the relative merits (or not) of interest only mortgages on many occasions, I thought it would be a long time before I needed to consider the subject again. My last article in this magazine on interest only mortgages was in 2013, when the media criticism had reached a then peak.
In May this year we at FSTP, shared the ESMA Consultation Paper “Draft guidelines for the assessment of knowledge and competence” (dated 23rd April 2015) with a number of clients.
The Insurance Act 2015 represents the biggest change to UK insurance law in over a hundred years. It will affect many areas of commercial insurance and fundamentally alters the law on material facts and warranties. It is essential anyone working in insurance and related areas understands how the new legislation will apply.
![Getting ready for Consumer Buy to Let [“CBLT”]](https://lholdiwhpubgktyscacf.supabase.co/functions/v1/media/wp/2015/08/Getting-ready-for-consumer-buy-to-let.jpg)
For many years there has been the perception that buy to let [“BTL”] mortgages are not regulated. They are not covered by MCOB and are not regulated I hear you cry – and, of course, you are technically correct.
