In a bizarre move the Financial Markets Authority has done a review of itself, talking to the industry bodies it works with; but forgetting to talk to its customers (that’s us).  The resulting report can be seen here.  It is good self promotion by the FMA.  We believe the report is an attempt by the FMA to do damage control and bolster its credibility in the wake of the RAM collapse. Our media release in response is here.

The FMA report does contain some very interesting comments, confirming there was widespread knowledge in the adviser industry of what Ross was up to.

“There were investment managers around town who lost clients to Ross Asset Management–they knew and should have raised a flag. The industry is relationships driven and having relationships within this community could have served to alert the FMA of Ross Asset Management” –Industry body stakeholder Page 26

“There are bigger fish to fry – there may be more Ross Asset Managements out there” –Private sector stakeholder Page 26

“Some stakeholders indicated that Ross Asset Management’s practices where known to many people in the advising industry and that if the FMA were networked at this level, they would have been informed informally, while others disputed this”.   Page 26

“Ross Asset Management was commonly quoted as an example given the role of a lack of custodian independence in enabling his scheme to operate for so long” Page 38

For the record from May 2013 “Suggestions the Financial Markets Authority knew about David Ross long before his business was raided were “crap”, the regulator’s chief executive told a conference this morning. Read more here.