In a move that is not totally unexpected, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it will launch a Financial Advisory Industry Review (Fair) yesterday at the 50th anniversary dinner of Life Insurance Association.

Among the many areas that the Fair will look at, the ones that will generate the most shockwave in the industry will probably be the review on the entry requirements of FA representatives and the Commission-based remuneration and distribution structure.

Current entry requirements for FA representatives is 4 GCE ‘O’ Level passes. Not much impact here if only new representatives are required to have higher qualifications as the current generation do posses higher qualifications. However, if current representatives are also required to undertake additional papers or to meet new requirements, significant blood-letting may occur. Already, some Chinese-educated and/or older representatives are sweating over the new CMFAS M8A and M9A papers introduced recently to equip representatives with the knowledge on complex products that ...