On 11 May 2018, the FCA published Policy Statement 18/10: Policy Statement on retiring FG12/15 and FG14/1 (PS18/10). In PS18/10 the FCA states that it is cancelling two pieces of Finalised Guidance (Finalised Guidance 12/15: Retail Distribution Review: independent and restricted advice and Finalised Guidance 14/1: Supervising retail investment advice: inducements and conflicts of interest) with immediate effect on the basis that they have been largely superseded by the implementation of MiFID II.

The FCA also mentions in PS18/10 that it won’t be publishing further guidance for financial advisers which present themselves as ‘independent’ and only use a single platform for their clients. The FCA draws firms’ attention to COBS 6.2B.24R and 6.2B.25G which make provision for this situation. The FCA Factsheet ‘Using platform-based investments and the independence rule’ has now been superseded and has been withdrawn with immediate effect.