FCA 'to review approach' as it defers advisers' capital adequacy rules

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to defer its capital adequacy requirements on personal investment firms (PIFs) - which were due to kick in at the end of this year - by a further two years, and will use the time to review its entire approach to firms' capital rules.

The previous requirements meant firms had to hold capital equal to the greater of four weeks EBR [expenditure based requirement] or £15,000 by the end of 2013, the greater of eight weeks EBR or £15,000 by the end of 2014 and the greater of 13 weeks EBR or £20,000 by the end of 2015. Each of these has now been pushed back two years, with the phasing in of the new requirements beginning in 2015 and ending in December 2017. But the regulator said it would also use the time to conduct a "fundamental review" of its proposed approach because its competition objectives were not present under...