The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must provide the industry with examples of good practice, something that has been "missing" from regulatory correspondence to date, according to the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
Director Steve Jenkins' comments following the release of a paper earlier this week detailing how the FCA, which will replace the Financial Services Authority (FSA), will operate.
Jenkins said he thought the regulator's move from compliance to a more 'hearts and minds' philosophy around conduct was positive and that it would encourage people to join and feel proud of their profession.
He added: "A focus on culture and behaviour is good, but alongside this we need to see examples of what ‘good' looks like. This has been missing from correspondence until now.
"It won't help to talk about it in the theory or abstract, advisers need to be able to visualise what they are expected to.
"Positive examples of good conduct go down very well with our members."
He said good conduct used to be a mystery but the issue of behaving properly was now "very high profile".
Jenkins added: "It is a good time to be a explicit as possible about what this means. The move would see the industry unite behind sanctions for bad behaviour. There would also be an increase in the number of whistleblowers."
Seperately, Jenkins said that the industry is evolving more quickly than at any time in the past and that the rise in the role of ‘paraplanner' as a profession will be accompanied by other as yet unknown roles.
"If we wind the clock forwards three of four years there will be an increase in emergence of roles like this. As firms mature and start to build more robust infrastructures, new specialisms and specialists will emerge.
"This will accompany a maturation of the market which will begin to see a parity of esteem with other professions such as solicitors and lawyers."
