Regulation

The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has called for a 12 month delay to the RDR to enable more advisers to reach Level 4, among a series of other concessions, but the FSA has flatly refused any negotiation on a change to its plans.

The industry is split on the merits of the Treasury Select Committee's (TSC) key recommendation to delay the RDR for 12 months until 1 January 2014.

UK banks were not among the eight institutions to fail the European stress tests on the sector.

Hector Sants, the current chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and Bank of England governor Mervyn King have been named among the most influential people in the European capital markets.

Former chairman of the Investment Management Association (IMA) and previous chief executive of F&C Asset Management Robert Jenkins has been appointed as an external member of the interim Financial Policy Committee (FPC).

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has backed proposals to give the public shares in part-nationalised banks RBS and Lloyds.

Leading fund managers are moving to snap up ‘cheap' UK banks after a dismal year which saw them drop in value as markets raced higher.

George Osborne has confirmed UK banks will be forced to ‘ringfence' retail banking operations to protect savers from risks taken in investment banking arms.

Mervyn King has claimed low capital requirements and inadequate limits on leverage have been the most "tragic" aspects of financial regulation.

The FSA has stressed its preference for product intervention as an "essential" means of achieving consumer protection.