Compliance Monitor

FSA warns insurers, as hard times hit The regulator is concerned about heightened pressures in the insurance sector and has written to CEOs to warn them of the risks of inadequate pricing and reserving. Firms are reminded of their responsibilities..

This guy will play a significant role in your firm’s future. Esther Martin reports on the incoming head of UK financial markets and conduct regulation.

As UK financial institutions grapple with the FSA’s consumer protection drive, a separate initiative covering the same area looms from Europe. Rosali Pretorius and Emma Radmore look at the Commission’s current plans and consider their possible effects on retail product design and distribution.

The past month has seen further light shone on the future regulatory framework, which will soon exist in preliminary ‘shadow’ form. Esther Martin reports on the updates.

CP11/3 proposed amendments to the rules on how to draft key features documents and illustrations in order to make them compatible with Retail Distribution Review proposals and the gradual integration of personal pensions and self-invested personal pensions. But the sheer complexity of the proposals and COBS 13 – which most of them involve amending – raised concerns even within FSA ranks as to whether the work that goes into most regulatory disclosure in the retail market is really worthwhile. Adam Samuel suggests a re-think.

With the 1 July deadline for compliance with the Remuneration Code just months away, Alexandra Carn provides an employment law perspective on specifics of its implementation.

Piers Reynolds takes a big picture view of the ‘horizon risks’ related to developing and selling retail products.

UK-regulated firms with US ties are caught in a transAtlantic Catch-22 as they contend with conflicting sanctions regimes. By Christian Taylor and Richard Burger