Adviser Alliance recruits UKIP man to fight RDR

Anti-RDR group Adviser Alliance has recruited European Member of Parliament Godfrey Bloom to its ranks as it holds out hope the EU could overturn UK regulations.

Godfrey, a UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire, becomes an honoury member of Alan Lakey's organisation which is fighting to overturn those elements of the RDR it deems most damaging, in particular the commission ban and lack of a long-stop provision.

Founder Alan Lakey (pictured) says Bloom will help the not-for-profit organisation eliminate "foolish ideas" and re-balance the regulatory landscape.

He thinks Bloom, who is a coordinator for the EFD Group on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, will add gravitas to his group's cause.

"We will be taken more seriously now - Godfrey is not a light-weight, has strong views and is well known. He will add weight to any submissions we make and will assist us with our work in the political arena."

Lakey thinks the current political landscape presents opportunities his organisation must seize.

"This is the time when the influence we can bear is most important - before laws are pushed through by Parliament. We must find those MPs sufficiently interested in our arguments of fairness and human rights who can assist us."

Although Bloom's party wants to minimise the influence of the EU in UK affairs, Lakey thinks Europe could prove to be a useful ally.

"Godfrey realises what the FSA wants to do might not happen because of the European influence," says Lakey. "No other country in Europe has placed a ban on commission and if we are moving towards uniformity the FSA's stance will be out of line with the rest of the continent. One school of thought says if one country in the EU bans commission this is an unsupportable view."

Meanwhile, Lakey thinks the possible scrapping of the FSA could amount to very little in reality. Although the Financial Services Regulation Bill, as set out recently in the Queen's speech, will give control of micro-prudential regulation to the Bank of England, it is not clear whether the FSA will be scrapped entirely.

"I am as much in the dark as anyone as to whether the FSA will be scrapped. If the Government does scrap it, I think members of the FSA will be in the organisation anyway.

"Whether it is called the FSA or the CPA, it will likely have the same rulebook or a variation of that. The question is not whether the FSA will go but whether the new body will be a consumer body."