FCA prepares 5th Coronavirus resilience survey
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has told advice firms that it is preparing to send its fifth Coronavirus financial resilience survey in August.
The regulator said it is the issue another survey to help it better understand the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on Financial Planning firms and that surveys will start to be emailed out at the start of August.
As per previous surveys, Financial Planning firms must submit responses within 15 working days of receiving the email.
The regulator has come under attack on social media for the timing of the survey, with Financial Planners saying that yet again they have chosen to release a mandatory survey at a time when many advisers are short staffed or on holiday. The regulator issued the first phase of its impact survey between June and August last year.
One Financial Planner asked: "Will there be a box to say that the biggest impact of Covid-19 is filling in forms about the impact of Covid-19?"
Financial Planners have also criticised the regulator on social media asking what they hope to achieve by repeating the survey again, when many do not understand what use they have put the last four rounds of the survey to.
The regulator also revealed this will not be the last of the pandemic-related resilience surveys, and advisers should expect to receive more in the future.
The regulator revealed highlights of the results of its first resilience survey in January. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents (59%) to the survey said they expected the pandemic to hit their income, with most expecting a drop of up to 25%. https://www.financialplanningtoday.co.uk/news/item/12542-pandemic-hits-financial-services-income-fca
The FCA survey revealed 4,000 firms with '"low financial resilience" which the regulator identified as at risk of failure as a result, although the FCA said many will recover.