Britain's financial watchdog presses ahead with a reform 

(MENAFN - Saudi Press Agency) Britain's financial watchdog said it was pressing ahead with a reform of how consumers are sold investment products from January, dashing industry hopes for last minute changes, Reuters reported.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has faced a barrage of criticisms that its planned overhaul, known as the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), will put unfair burdens and curbs on advisory firms.

The reform will end commission-based selling in a bid to draw a line under two decades of mis-selling scandals.

'It has been five years in the making, RDR, and I can't promise it's perfect in every respect. We have said we will do a two-year review,' FSA managing director Martin Wheatley said.

'Given how close we are to this, I don't think we are going to be making further changes from here,' he told a conference for private client investment managers.

He will head Britain's new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after the FSA is scrapped in early in 2013.

The FCA will continue with a 'credible deterrence' policy of cracking down harder on market abuses, he said, giving a taste of the new policy paper he will release next Tuesday detailing how the new watchdog will operate on the ground.

In a move that has alarmed banks and investment funds, the FCA will have powers to ban products.

In the past any concerns over a product triggered lengthy consultations before action was taken, often too late.

The FCA will publish fewer consultations in general and instead focus on a narrower set of cross-industry issues.