Acquisitive Chartered Financial Planning firm Fairstone has acquired Hase Osborne, another leading Chartered Financial Planning firm, for an undisclosed sum.

The FCA has today launched a campaign to urge the public to stop remaining silent when financial scams occur. It also urges the public to seek impartial advice before investing.

More than a third (36%) of advisers expect to direct more business to platforms over the next 12 months and more than a third say platforms make Financial Planning more “straightforward”, according to Aegon’s latest Adviser Attitudes Report.

According to new research 93% of the UK’s self-employed workers have no critical illness cover.

The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed that it will investigate a ‘cyber security’ break at data provider Equifax which hit nearly 700,000 UK consumers.

Wealth manager St James’s Place has seen strong growth in the third quarter with net inflows up 42% from £1.66bn to £2.36bn.

The Financial Ombudsman is upholding a smaller percentage of SIPP complaints compared to last year despite the number of complaints rising.

The boom in pension transfers is set to continue with news that flexible drawdown pension transfers surged by 13.6% (£114m) in the second quarter of this year to reach £954m.

FCA data released today shows that number of complaints recorded by firms rose to 3.32 million in the first half of 2017 compared to 3.04 million in the second half of 2016.

The FCA has imposed a fine of £34.52m on Merrill Lynch International (MLI) for failing to report 68.5 million exchange traded derivative transactions between February 2014 and February 2016.