In the early 1980's Intermediaries were free to conduct business as they saw fit. The actions of a few however led to the Govt at the time commissioning Prof Jim Gower to investigate and produce a report with recommendations about the UK financial services industry.
The outcome of the report formed the basis for the Financial Services Bill. The Securities and Investment Board (SIB) was established along with Self Regulatory Organisations focusing on individual sectors - (LAUTRO) - the Life Assurance & Unit Trust Regulatory Organisation was, as the name implies, regulated Life Offices and Unit Trust Management Companies.
The National Association of Securities Dealers and Investment Managers (NASDIM) had been established a few years earlier to licence Investment Brokers to deal in securities including Unit Trusts. NASDIM morphed into the Financial Intermediaries, Managers, Brokers Regulatory Authority (FIMBRA) - which from "A" day - 1st April 1988 regulated Independent Financial Advisers. I have fond memories of the staff at NASDIM - they were helpful and offered constructive advice and support.
Regulated Businesses - both Product Providers and Intermediaries entered a brave new world - and had to comply with the relevant SRO Rulebook(s) - paper based and initially only updated monthly. New jobs were invented - the Compliance Officer and the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) - the latter of which also had the title "vice president for going to jail" if anything untoward were to go wrong within a Regulated Firm involving Money Laundering.
In the early days of Regulation things were simple relative to today, we didn't have any rules about training & competence (until 1994), clients had to receive a "quotation or illustration" but they had to be based upon standard assumptions so that every Insurance or Pensions quote looked the same. We could phone up and speak to staff at LAUTRO and get answers that were helpful and meaningful - how times have changed.
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