A report funded by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority exonerates the Retail Distribution Review in glowing terms.

A review that the UK's Financial Conduct Authority commissioned has presented a glowing exoneration of the Retail Distribution Review to the regulated community.

This is Europe Economics’ final report on the impacts of RDR. It reaches the following conclusions.

• The RDR has made advisors more 'professional', whatever that means. The report seems to base its idea of professionalism on 'Mickey Mouse' examinations and membership of trade bodies. Doctors and architects might find this offensive.
• The ban on 'third-party commissions' has reduced product bias. This is evident, says the report, from a decline in the sale of products that carried high commissions before RDR and an increase in the sale of those that paid low or no commission then.
• Consumers are increasingly shopping around between different direct-to-consumer platforms and driving platform charges down. Investors using direct-to-consumer platforms are now among the largest shareholders in investment trusts. 'D2C' charging has ceased to be as complex as it once was, thanks to the removal of rebates. Many in the market are now saying that D2C platforms are an increasingly popular route through which investors can access closed-ended funds.
• Charges for retail investment products have been falling since RDR came in. Product prices have fallen by at least the amounts paid in commission before RDR, possibly influenced by the advent of simpler products with lower charges.
• The cost of advice might have increased. In relation to total cost of investment (or indeed the benefit to consumers from the advice they receive) the review says that the evidence "does not yet enable us to draw firm conclusions as to whether this has changed."
• The costs of complying with RDR have either equalled or undercut expectations.
• Firms are, by the review's admission, "moving to target higher wealth, higher margin consumers." The so-called 'advice gap' is the result, although the authors of the report, having been paid by the FCA, put a brave face on this and largely deny it.