IMA Welcomes Financial Services Reform Plan

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

18 June 2010

The Investment Management Association has welcomed the publication of the Financial Services Consumer Panel’s ‘Ten Point Plan’, aimed at presenting recommendations to enhance the quality of financial services.

In particular, the IMA welcomed proposals to make clearer product offerings on an easily comparable basis, in a more transparent way to clients. The ten point plan said that the government should ensure that those offering financial services products present them to clients in a transparent way to ensure that pricing and future charges are clearly explained. Further, the report calls for “an end to complex product innovation that obscures risk, and also to practices designed to lure in consumers or make it more difficult to compare products and their true costs.”

Commenting, Richard Saunders, Chief Executive of Investment Management Association said:

"We welcome the Consumer Panel's Ten Point plan, in particular the emphasis on achieving fair outcomes for consumers. All the points deserve consideration and many reflect long-standing aims of the IMA for regulation. The IMA stands behind their approach.”

"In particular we support the call for transparent product design and good communication which enables customers to compare products. We have long been concerned about complex structured products with hidden risks and unnamed counterparties.”

"The Association believes there is a pressing need for greater simplicity and clarity around long term savings and pensions. Tax incentives need to be simplified and equal protection afforded to savers whether they hold funds in a SIPP, a personal pension or a life product."

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