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Advisers face second FSCS bill on top of £100m levy
Advisers will have to stump up at least £100m this financial year to fund the FSCS – with an extra bill possible later this year.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme published details this morning confirming that the levy for advisers would be unchanged from the initial figure.
FSCS warned it would have to raise a supplementary levy later in the year to cover compensation costs above the £100m limit if necessary.
Estimated costs for Sipp-related claims, have been reduced from £163m in January to £146m.
FSCS chief executive Mark Neale said: “There is a commensurate fall in our levy forecast which comes down. This is still well above the annual threshold for this sector, but in view of the volatility of these claims, we plan to raise an initial levy to the limit of £100m.
"This means that we begin the year with the risk of a supplementary levy later in the year which, if it became necessary, would result in costs falling on other sectors through the retail pool."
The FSCS said the Sipp-related claims arise from bad advice to move retirement savings from occupational pension schemes into a Sipp and to invest in risky or illiquid assets within the Sipp wrapper.
The FSCS announced its final levy for 2017/18 overall across all sectors would be £363m. This is £15m less than it forecast in its plans in January.
The overall levy includes management expenses of £69.2m.The levy in 2016/17 totalled £337m.
General insurance intermediaries will pay £5m more, and investment intermediaries £4m more than FSCS forecast in January, officials said.
Better claims data from brokers in relation to the failure of Enterprise Insurance is the main reason for the reduction in FSCS’s compensation forecast for general insurance providers for the 2016/17 levy year.
The FSCS said it will have a £23m surplus in the general insurance provision sector at the end of the 2016/17 levy year (30 June 2017).
It will offset this surplus against compensation costs for this sector in the 2017/18 levy year, along with expected recoveries of £86m.
Mark Neale, chief executive of the FSCS, said: “Although the indicative forecasts we published in January and our final levy numbers this year are broadly similar, firms know that our levies can be unpredictable owing to the nature of some failures and the claims they generate.
"We welcome the continued support of levy payers at this time. We know that many are also engaged in the on-going FCA review of the FSCS funding model, and encourage a full debate to settle the basis of FSCS funding for the foreseeable future.”