Current industry bodies not necessarily future regulators

Approved Professional Bodies (APB) are one of the key features put forward by the Financial Intermediaries Task Force, but these entities are not necessarily going to be the current organisations representing advisers.

Wednesday, August 31st 2005, 6:53AM

by Philip Macalister

Under the proposals personal financial advisers would have to join an APB which would operate under the watchful eye of a government regulatory body.

Many have assumed that these APBs would be groups such as the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association.

However Task Force member Ross Kent told the AXA Advisers Association conference last week that “an APB is not the same as an industry body.”

He said that APBs may spin out of industry bodies. Kent said there are some concerns about current industry bodies becoming APBs. For instance APBs should not be bodies which are responsible for lobbying on their members’ behalf, rather that is the role of an industry body.

While the Task Force didn’t state how many APBs there should be, Kent said that it wouldn’t like to see a plethora of these organisations.

However it made sense that there were APBs for separate financial planning disciplines (investment, insurance, mortgages etc) and there is the possibly big organisations – such as banks – could establish their own APBs.

Kent said a government minister would have to approve the rules any APB wanted to work under.

APBs “will have their own governance arrangements and be constrained to the functions set down in the statute.”

Members of an APB would have to belong to a disputes resolution and a disciplinary body.

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