The Assessing Suitability Review (ASR 2) was placed on hold in April 2020 as the pandemic forced a rethink on workloads and has now been dropped indefinitely.

The FCA said: “We have decided not to continue planned work on ASR 2 in 2021/22.”

The statement leaves the door open to the review to be potentially picked up at another time although the FCA has kicked it into the long grass for now.

The watchdog says that reshuffling its workload will allow it to focus on other priority work, including the defined benefit pension transfers work and issues raised in the 2020 consumer investments Call for Input.

The FCA said today: “We remain committed to ensuring firms give suitable advice, including retirement income advice, that leads to good consumer outcomes. We will continue to monitor the market, and where we identify concerns will consider whether additional work is needed.”

The decision to drop the second advice review indefinitely came after the FCA reviewed its work plans in response to the pandemic and decided to put on the back burner projects or activity “not critical to protecting consumers and market integrity in the short term.”

The FCA has also decided to delay rules extending SME access to the Financial Ombudsman Service due to the Coronavirus pandemic and its impact on SME firms. The start of this review has been pushed back and will be reassessed in April 2023.

The FCA said it will continue to engage with the Financial Ombudsman Service on current handling of SME complaints.