One-year grace period for insurers

Insurers and financial advisory firms will be given more time to fall in line with a new framework to be used in assessing the performance of their sales staff and how they are paid.

Known as the "balanced scorecard" approach, the new framework will take into account non-sales factors in determining the pay of the agents and their supervisors.

If the agent is deemed to have failed in areas such as not selling suitable products or not giving adequate information to the customer, they could lose their variable pay, while their supervisors' pay could also be cut.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement recently that it will "provide the industry with a one-year grace period to familiarise themselves with the framework before effecting the requirements in legislation in January 2016".

The initial target for the new remuneration framework to take effect was January next year, after the MAS accepted most of the recommendations by the Financial Advisory Industry Review (Fair) panel in September last year.