FSA wants stock trade fee clarity

The FSA want to keep commissions down

Stock brokers and investment banks must make the cost of trading in stocks and shares more transparent, the Financial Services Authority said.

The FSA wants the investment industry to produce proposals for the unbundling of transaction costs on share deals.

It also said it wants a ban on "soft-commissions", the industry's term for charges for market information screens and similar services.

But it stopped short of ordering changes, preferring more consultation.

"We have concluded we should give the industry space to develop and trial a solution based on improved disclosure," said FSA chief executive John Tiner.

He said the FSA would prefer to work with the investment industry "rather than reach for our rule book" as long as it believed that a "sensible market-led solution can deliver our target".

He was speaking to the financial services council of the the Confederation of British Industry.

The FSA will look at what progress has been made in December 2004, he said.