Hughes' advice to new FMA CEO Rob Everett

This week the new FMA chief executive Rob Everett made his first public appearance in his new role. The event was the FMA's quarterly briefing which in the past had been well-attended by the media - this week though the turn was pretty low as evidenced by the dearth of stories in the media.

On Monday Good Returns will provide a story on some of the key points for advisers, and it would be fair to say the comments coming from the new leadership are refreshing. For the Weekly Wrap today here are some, personal, first impressions of the new chief executive.

Firstly Everett, while having a legal background like his predecessor, Sean Hughes come across quite differently. Hughes started off as the tough talking sheriff who was categorised, fairly or not, as wanting to put his foot down and get a few scalps or trophies. Over time Hughes mellowed in his approach, but he still made it clear that enforcement and capturing the bad guys was a high priority.
Everett, in his speech, appears much more inclusive and willing to build confidence amongst market participants. Indeed his catch cry of the morning was about having a "healthy and confident" market place.

What could be a telling insight to one of the differences between the two came in an answer to a question about enforcement. Everett, quite rightly, acknowledged that the FMA has to be vigorous and rigorous around enforcement - like Hughes. However he also said that there was a line somewhere about how strongly victories are promoted. Part of his thinking was around the difficulty in building confidence. If too much is made of the bad guys then people get the impression that markets are filled with these sorts of people, when we in the industry know there are very few rogues.