AMI's Sinclair Reiterates Call for Up-Front Product Levy to Fund FSCS

18 May 2017

AMI’s Robert Sinclair today re-iterated his calls for a fairer FSCS system which would be based on an up-front levy for all financial products sold.

Speaking at today’s FSE Manchester event, Sinclair said: “AMI would prefer an up-front product levy in order to fund the FSCS. This would cover every single financial service product and would put a kite mark on a product so that consumers would know they were protected; no kite mark, no protection.”

Sinclair did acknowledge that political and regulatory upheaval probably meant such a change was unlikely in the short-term.

However, he argued revisions could still be made. “At the least you should only pay for misdemeanours that take place in the areas in which you operate,” he said. “If you advise on mortgages you should not be paying for problems in pensions, for example.”

He also said that AMI were seeking a 30% input into the scheme from providers, plus the trade body wanted to see quality discounts and risk-based levies for firms.

“Good firms who do good things, who have good PI cover, should pay less,” he argued. “Most firms who have PI cover, never even claim on it.”

FSE Manchester is taking place today at The Emirates – Old Trafford. Visitors have access to over 60 exhibitors including lenders, distributors, networks, insurance providers, technology companies, and many more.