Commenting, Karen Barrett, chief executive of unbiased.co.uk, said: "We are pursuing a strategy which steadily phases out our dependency on product provider sponsorship, replacing it with more representative and sustainable sources of funding.
“Of course, provider firms will still be able to contribute to the campaign alongside other stakeholders, in return for specific IFAP services such as continued access to our IFA database.
"By deploying a wide range of cost-effective marketing strategies to generate around half a million well-matched consumer leads for IFAs each year, we have already been able to attract half of our annual funding via sales to IFAs of our enhanced advertising package.
“In return, IFA subscribers - who in effect are helping fund the campaign for the whole sector - quite rightly receive enhanced prominence and features across our consumer searches, resulting in them receiving a larger share of the leads we generate."
Barrett continued: "We are well progressed with a number of further initiatives to attract funding for IFAP, and are confident that our objective of becoming self-funding will be achieved. We are also clear that we will not enter into any activity which could in any way compromise or damage the integrity of our business, nor the confidentiality of consumers' search details, both of which remain important to IFAP's ongoing success.
David Graham, Chairman of IFA Promotion added: "The major changes which are taking place in our industry confirm that we took the right decisions three years ago with regards to moving towards self-funding. It is the only way to ensure that IFAP continues to be of positive influence and value both to consumers and to independent financial advisers."
