The FCA has proposed an overhaul to the rules and new guidance on investment managers' use of client commissions to make their usage more transparent.
The regulator says that these changes will ensure that charges paid by consumers for executing trades and related services – known as dealing commission - are fairer and more transparent.
The consultation forms part of a wider discussion launched by the FCA chief executive at the FCA Asset Management Conference in October to consider the potential for reforms to address flaws in the use of the dealing commission regime in light of potential EU reforms in this area and a growing consensus that existing practices can be improved.
The FCA will continue this debate on the potential need for wider reforms alongside consultation on more immediate improvements to the existing rules.
Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the FCA, said: "We need to be confident that managers are putting their clients' value for money, good returns, and transparency at the heart of how they do business. So today's consultation is part of a wider debate on the need to reform the use of the dealing regime, particularly the use of dealing commissions, and how industry practice can be improved now to the benefit of all.
"As a forward-looking regulator, we expect firms to exercise judgement to act in the best interest of their clients – seeking to manage their clients' costs as effectively as they pursue investment returns".
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The proposals are designed to ensure investment managers make appropriate judgments and seek to control costs to clients when using dealing commission to pay for research goods and services. The main proposals that will be consulted on include:
• Clarifying the criteria for research goods and services that can be purchased by investment managers with dealing commission paid from customers' funds;
• Defining 'corporate access' and providing guidance on how investment managers should treat corporate access under the use of dealing commission rules; and
• Guidance on making mixed-use assessments where investment managers purchase bundled brokerage services that contain both research and non-research elements, to ensure that only research is paid for with dealing commission.
The FCA estimates that last year, the industry generated over £3 billion in dealing commission – of which around £1.5 billion was spent on research. 
The FCA expects to finalise new rules in Q2 2014.