Gary Lester, managing director of London-based Lifestyle Mortgage Services, said he now gets more ‘junk mail’ from the FSA than from anyone else, selling him one course or another for a few hundred pounds.
He said: “It is good that the FSA is committed to training industry professionals and that it continues to offer a range of courses. However, is it now an authority or a training company?
“The latest e-mail from the FSA containing this month’s training courses would cost me £2,640 to educate myself in what it would like, sorry insist, we must know. I would like to take a compliance manager on these courses but not for almost £8,000 – this month.
“The incredible fines the FSA charges, which are often hundreds of thousands of pounds, should be directed into educating the industry and not enforcing. Educating the industry is a cheaper and better alternative than enforcement. I want to see free training, not our money wasted on a barrage of very high-quality marketing leaflets and e-mails. Taking our levies and spending the money on selling to us is ridiculous,” Lester said.
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesperson at the FSA, said: “The whole point of these courses and seminars is to help the industry. The charges reflect the cost of running them, such as having guest speakers. If it was free then we would have to get the money some other way, like charging greater regulatory fees.”
But Kevin Morgan, managing director of Consilium Financial Planning, said: “Why does the FSA need guest speakers? It should have all the expertise itself. It seems it is taking advantage of us.”
