Advisers' bill for FSCS rises by another £10m since January
Advisers will have to stump up an extra £10m to fund The Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Professionals in the life & pensions Intermediation category will pay £90m for 2016/17 instead of £80m, as indicated in the provisional Budget in January. The rise has been blamed on costs relating to Sipps.
The FSCS said there was a higher average compensation cost for Sipp-related claims. The average cost has increased from £34,800 to £41,673.
The figures were revealed as the FSCS published its final levy this morning. The total runs to £337m.
This is £26m less than forecast in its plan published in January but higher than the levy in 2015/16 which totalled £319m.
In a statement the FSCS said this morning: “Most industry sectors will contribute less in 2016/17 than FSCS forecast in January.
“The exception is the life and pensions intermediaries sector, which will pay a levy of £90m in 2016/17 – up from a forecast of £80m, to reflect a higher average cost of claims arising from advice about investments in self-invested personal pensions. In 2015/16, life and pensions intermediaries paid a levy of £100m.”
The organisation said management expenses would fall for the second successive year. In 2016/17, these will total £67.4m.
In addition to the overall levy, FSCS will recover interest costs – also £337m – from Treasury loans for Bradford and Bingley and Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander during the banking crisis in 2008.
Mark Neale, chief executive of FSCS, said: "These levy numbers are published at a time of intense debate about how FSCS is funded. I’m sure they will be further grist to that mill, though perhaps there is some relief in the relative stability of the levy this year.
“We look forward to the forthcoming review by the Financial Conduct Authority into how FSCS is funded, and will play our part in discussions. I encourage the industry to play a full role in the debate.
"Not only is the overall levy little changed year-on-year, but there is also continuity in the levies of advisers. So the volatility, which is so difficult for small business to manage, is at least less pronounced.
"There are, of course, no guarantees beyond 2016/17 (or that there will not be a supplementary levy this year). Volatility is always likely to be feature of a pay-as-you-go funding system as experience shows."
He added: “The annual levy allows us to compensate customers. That generates consumer confidence and trust in the industry."
Since it was created in 2001, the FSCS said more than 4.5m people have received in excess of £26bn in compensation claims against the financial services industry.