FSA leaves product disclosure regime alone

LONDON – "Costly and of limited benefit to consumers." This is the clear message from research conducted into the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) proposals to implement changes to its point-of-sale investment product disclosure regime. Research into the proposed changes has shown that they will only succeed in further confusing consumers and incur significant implementation costs, as confirmed by the companion cost benefit analysis (CBA) commissioned by the FSA.

The FSA has subsequently decided to abandon these proposals. It is planning, through its Conduct of Business rules, or Newcob guidelines, to simplify the current requirements and implement a number of measures to improve the standard of the existing documentation.

The FSA had intended to replace the existing Key Facts Documents (KFD) with a two-sided Keyfacts Quick Guide. It also planned to