Advisers urged to ensure they're meeting FSA expectations

A total of 1,246 intermediaires answered the question: "Do you think firms are spending more time than ever keeping up to date with the changes in regulations and compliance?"

The results were:

Yes: 87.50%

No: 7.69%

Maybe: 4.81%

Stephem Gibson, of Ecompli, comments:

"This month’s poll was really intriguing and I’m not surprised by the outcome.

"Everyone who works within the financial services industry seems to have to spend much more time focussing on whether their systems / processes are still meeting the expectations set by the Financial Services Authority.

"Certainly from a compliance house perspective we are having to regularly update all of our template manuals to keep them in line with the frequent adjustments to regulations and a good example of this is the recent changes to the complaints handling rules.

"It really is a full time job for our team so I sympathise with advisers who have to always constantly adapt their procedures.

"Going forward there are dramatic changes on the regulatory horizon. The RDR is drawing ever nearer and we will also see some big changes when the Financial Conduct Authority replaces the FSA."