The Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) has submitted its response to the FCA’s fees and levies Consultation Paper CP15/14 calling for a freeze to the FCA’s budget for two years.  

Fees for advisers in 2015/16 will rise by 10.2%.

Chris Hannant, director general of APFA, said: “The FCA must understand that its year on year fee increases are unsustainable for the profession.  An organisation that is managing its budget with care should be able to find sufficient efficiencies to still effectively undertake its regulatory responsibilities.

“We recognise that advisers should contribute towards the FCA’s and other regulatory bodies’ costs, however the ever increasing cost of regulation is having an adverse impact on the financial adviser sector.

“We will continue to challenge the FCA’s need for such increases and we will continue to press for all the regulatory bodies to be more cost effective and to commit to not increasing their costs.”