British expats, your financial adviser may well be a bandit - FT.com

British expats, your financial adviser may well be a bandit - FT.com:

"Today’s UK regulated financial advice firms bear no resemblance to the product-focused, commission-based sales operations which were widespread in the 1990s and 2000s. Despite its shortcomings, UK retail financial advice today is widely considered to be among the best regulated in the world. But the task of finding good advice beyond these shores remains a different matter.
A few years ago the UK regulator set the financial adviser minimum threshold qualification at level 4 (similar to the first year of a degree). The benchmark that most companies insist on these days, though, is level 6 (such as chartered or certified financial planner). These higher level qualifications are not easy to acquire. And the continuing professional development obligation for UK-qualified financial advisers is now more onerous than for most lawyers and accountants."



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Latin America Oil Producers Call for Action to Improve Prices - Bloomberg

Latin America Oil Producers Call for Action to Improve Prices - Bloomberg:

"Oil-producing countries must take the necessary steps to stabilize the global crude market in a bid to improve prices, Ecuador Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said on behalf of Latin American nations after a gathering in Quito.
Waiting for the market to balance itself would be “catastrophic,” Ecuador Oil Minister Carlos Pareja said earlier, before the meeting on Friday. Ecuador, OPEC’s smallest member, hosted the talks ahead of a summit of producers in Doha, Qatar, on April 17.
“We are going to give a message of support,” Pareja said."



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