Stephen Bland, the FSA’s director of small firms, spoke at the Association of Independent Financial Advisers’ (AIFA) first ‘Leaders of the Industry’ lunch.
He highlighted what he sees as the sometimes contradictory comments regarding TCF, including: ‘TCF is unnecessary’, ‘TCF is ill-defined’, ‘TCF absolves customers of their responsibilities’, and ‘TCF is product regulation by the back door’.
In his speech Bland said: “TCF has been subject to a number of criticisms; I believe these to be unfounded. On the contrary I believe it offers a number of benefits for you and your businesses. In particular, we consider TCF to be an integral part of maintaining consumer confidence in the financial services industry.
“If consumer confidence is not maintained and indeed restored then while the industry will still be here in ten years, consumer numbers will be lower than they should be and complaints will be higher than they should be. This is not a world that any of us want to be part of.”
Chris Cummings, AIFA’s director-general, said: “Our members look to us to keep them up-to-date with issues affecting their businesses. The FSA’s TCF initiative is at the top of the regulator’s agenda and affects the sector at every level. It is important that the industry is given the opportunity to hear first hand the FSA’s plans and is able to question the regulator about them.”
“AIFA’s dialogue with its members must be a two-way process and our new ‘Leaders of the Industry’ lunches will help us meet and engage with the industry on a more regular basis. We need to ensure that we are in touch with our members’ key concerns and tackling the right issues on their behalf,” he added.
