Who regulates both and what is the advantage

Agreed............ Perhaps the FSA can explain why saving is so heavily regulated and lending is not when the financial systems practically employed last year due to the disparity in regulation. But then it did mean Golden Brun managed to keep the bubble growing long enough for Teflon Tony to move over so he didn't have to stand and win an election to become PM..............

Posted by: Phil Castle

Bread & Circuses

I have to say I find it difficult to empathise or sympathise with those who are forever banging on about consumer affordability. In every walk of life there will be people who can afford certain things and others who cannot. That’s why some drive Bentleys and some use the bus. It’s called capitalism. Although your piece doesn’t make it very clear I think you also regret that Caveat Emptor has been ditched. This is symptomatic of the nanny state and also if I may say, the attitude of people who worry about those you can’t afford an IFA. That the FSCP is so dense that it can’t see that ever increasing layers of regulation result in the disenfranchisement of those whose bottoms they so love to wipe, merely illustrates the calibre of people who make up the panel. The idea that the ‘mass market’ has similar access to savings as they do to debt products is a theory that could only have come from a life office desperate for business. The mass market has (even in your own words) shown themselves completely inept and irresponsible. That they are now sinking under a mountain of indebtedness is no ones fault but their own. Easy access and cheap money is no excuse at all – no one forced them to take it. In my view you SHOULD be advocating additional regulation for credit access. It should be made much harder. If we want to wipe the noses of the mass market that is PRECISELY where we should start. What on earth is the point of saving if you are in debt and paying interest at a level several orders of magnitude more than the interest (or growth) that is achievable with your savings? I’m sure you too must be old enough to remember credit control – why has this been forgotten? Because the politicians want (as ever) to give the masses bread and circuses. Has the world gone mad – or am I loosing it?

Posted by: Harry Katz

Director

Return To Direct Selling I could not agree more with Harry Katz's take on Steve Foulkards article. Since insurers instigated the RDR through their lobbying of the FSA by the ABI, their agenda was to clearly regain distribution. They complained to the FSA about IFA "churning" and reduced profits, when their own members were encouraging this practice. They could also see that IFA's were increasingly offerring unbundled products, effectively bypassing the insurer. The FSA also maintained that advisors were not serving the public, judging by the complaints that were recieved. This proved to be another myth, with sales advisers from banks and insurers responsible for the overwhelming number of these, as opposed to IFA's. The insurers/ABI agenda aided by the FSA, is to get rid of small IFA's, so that they can once again sell direct to the mass market. By introducing RDR this will effectively kill the majority of small IFA's. If companies like AXA and Aviva then get their way, regulation will be reduced, and mass direct selling (with no guidance any longer availble through IFA's) will once again be the order of the day. Over priced products will become the norm, often missold by the banking distributor. Inevitably this will lead to new regulation, but once again the lessons will have been lerned to late. Sound familiar?

Posted by: Gary Cutting