After the shock news that Barclays intended to transform its sales staff into Independent Financial Advisers in just four weeks, an alleged 80% fail rate has been claimed. Whilst this is only an allegation and Barclays have declined to comment on the number of first-time passes, they did say that the training course was rigorous and the pass level was as expected. The industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority also commented.
They said: According to FSA regulations, in order to be a fully-qualified IFA you have to pass the FPC3 or equivalent as the basic requirement. They also went on to say that although timescales were not stipulated, it was upto the firm concerned to ensure their staff are suitably trained and supervised.
Our View
We believe that all financial advisers should be independent and the news that Barclays are moving this way is welcome. This means that clients get advisers working on their behalf and in their best interests, rather than just being sold a company product whilst the adviser works for the benefit of the company.
We do not agree with the thinking that someone can go from selling one brand of financial products on behalf of the company, to working in a client's best interests and advising from literally thousands of products in just four weeks! However, we do understand that you have to start somewhere and that some of the advisers are highly qualified.
We have no doubt that Barclays will supply its sales staff with a mass of research tools to help them give advice but it is impossible to learn the skills to do the job in just four weeks. Barclays may, however, disagree.