The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said that protection will not be within the scope of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review (AGBR) due to campaigning from the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI).
The AGBR comes off the back of the Edinburgh Reforms in 2022, where it was announced that the FCA and the government would have a joint review to “examine the regulatory boundary between financial advice and other forms of support”.
The policy paper was launched in December last year and the feedback period on initial proposals closed in February this year.
The review aimed to “create a regulatory system where a range of commercially viable, high-quality models of support will be in place enabling consumers to access better support”.
AMI has been “closely monitoring” the AGBR due to concerns about “scope creep and the risk that this initiative could negatively impact on mortgage and protection intermediaries”.
The trade body said that if protection had been within the scope of this review, then this could have led to more automated transactions and non-advised sales, to the detriment of brokers and consumers.
AMI argued that protection productions are traditionally grouped with general insurance, which is out of the scope of the AGBR, and that the impact on the protection industry has been “too vague”.
The trade body added that while investment and pensions trade bodies had been involved in a roundtable, AMI had not, which it said was a “significant oversight” as mortgage advisers are the “largest single source of protection sales”.
AMI continued: “Firms cannot be expected to fund an initiative without sufficient information and opportunity to challenge and debate its implementation.”
The FCA said: “We have considered this feedback and have amended our cost recovery to remove fee block A.19 from funding the AGBR exceptional project, as we agree that general insurance is out of scope of this project.
“The AGBR is focused on the provision of investment advice, both accumulation and decumulation, and aims to create a system that ensures consumers get the help they want, when they need it and at a cost that is affordable.”
Speaking to this publication, Robert Sinclair (pictured), AMI’s chief executive, said: “We’re pleased that the regulator has listened. They [the regulator] go through [a] consultation process for a reason, and we’re always pleased when they listen to us.
“It’s a situation where we put forward, I think, a good case, well-grounded in fact that we didn’t think that the market had a series of failures in the protection market space, and therefore it shouldn’t be included in the review, and therefore also we shouldn’t be charged for any work they’re doing in this area.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
