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RBS Cuts Hundreds of Jobs As FCA Approves 'Robo-Advisers' (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the it-puts-the-money-in-the-basket dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that it will be switching customer advice services over to automated 'robo-advisers' as it cuts 220 face-to-face positions. Given the green light from UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) this week, the bank agreed that the move would lead to cheaper, more accessible financial advice. Those customers qualifying for personalised advice will now need to have at least £250,000 (approx. $350,000) to invest. Following the FCA's recommendations, it is expected that other UK banks will soon introduce similar 'robo' services.

1 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's about time we realize by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is very very little in difference to the current concept of quote engines in the insurance industry where the resulting quotations are classified as "non-advised", meaning there is no opportunity for them to be miss-sold as the entire onus is on the purchaser and not the seller to ensure that what they are buying is correct for them.

    In the UK the financial and insurance industry is heavily regulated, to the point where the authority will take something which has been deemed "acceptable activity" for many years and force the industry to refund premiums - the banks are currently in the tail end of refunding over £100Billion in Payment Protection Insurance premiums (and interest) because the FSA (now the FCA) suddenly deemed the way they were sold to be non-acceptable.

    So, RBS is just using standard rating systems to present standardised options for low capital investors on a non-advised basis.