Letter: Standards of control in financial services

Sir: Nicholas Goodison is reported as having criticised the standards of supervision exercised by Fimbra over its members (report, 24 November).

I am not sure on what basis Sir Nicholas has reached this conclusion. Fimbra has, in fact, adopted a robust line in regulating a previously uncontrolled sector of the financial services industry. Of the 12,000 firms that originally applied for authorisation under the Financial Services Act, 3,000 were unable to meet Fimbra's membership requirements. And in the past five years, a further 800 firms have had their authorisation removed. Fimbra has consistently met the monitoring requirements of the Securities and Investments Board and conducts more than 3,000 visits a year to examine the conduct and quality of advice of its members.

If Sir Nicholas would like to see our operations at first hand, I should be very pleased to welcome him.

Yours faithfully,

GORDON DOWNEY

London, E14