LESSONS FORGOTTEN

To have ever allowed the banks to merge their high street and investment operations was a move of such rank stupidity, it beggars belief.  The lessons of the 1930’s conveniently forgotten, we have waved goodbye to Glass–Steagall.

As the profits rose (and the tax take rose), we increasingly pinned our country’s colours to the mast of Mammon, at the expense of everything else.  Successive governments dropped their trousers and bent over, diluting regulation over and over again, until it was no more than weak swill at the bottom of the glass.

 

Now we have to suffer righteous indignation and buck-passing.  Party politics and blame.  And best of all, we get to pay for it too.

So, why are we surprised at the behaviour of those who manipulated Libor?  Traders are treated like prize-fighters by their employers, existing in a rarefied bubble of cash with no connection to the outside world.   

They are selected by measures of aggression, testosterone and capacity to take risk.   Should they be held accountable?  Undoubtedly; they knew what they were doing and didn’t care.  Are they ultimately responsible?  I don’t think so.

Danny Boyle has missed a trick.  If he really wants the Olympic opening ceremony to reflect this country, he should transform the stadium into one big trading floor.  As people enter, they could have their pockets blatantly picked by arrogant yobs in sharp suits and braces, while fountains of Bollinger pour down a drain...

...I am sure the banks would sponsor it.

It's all about confidence.

The deadline for responses to the consultation paper for the Retail Distribution Review, or RDR closed a couple of days ago. The FSA are calling for all investment advisers to consider how they will meet proposed new standards by a 2012 deadline.

Jon Pain, FSA Managing Director of Retail Markets, said:

The RDR is about regaining consumer trust and confidence in the retail investment market, building a more sustainable sector and making it easier for people to find their way around and get the help they need – this is more important now than ever before.

You can read the full FSA press release here. In particular, we stakeholders are invited to reflect upon how we might ensure that:

· Independent advice is truly independent and reflects investors’ needs;

· People can clearly identify and understand the service they are being offered;

· Commission-bias is removed from the system – and recommendations made by advisers are not influenced by product providers;

· Investors know up-front how much advice is going to cost and how they will pay for it; and

· All investment advisers will be qualified to a new, higher level, regarded as equivalent to the first year of a degree.

Bear in mind that this so called independent advice includes certain sales divisions of the banks and many large organisations who have barely moved from a direct sales mentality, but who are considered independent because of the range of product that they sell. By the nature of the grand scale of their activity, these organisations are pretty powerful political hitters and find it easier than some of us to bend the ear of government.

The fact that the word Distribution appears in the title of the review is a bit of a clue. To truly separate advice from selling financial product might be problematic for the ‘wholesale’ end of the market.

For those of us that have taken most of this revolutionary thinking as a given for many years now (Any Resolution Accredited IFA will already be part of a firm working to these standards, if not exceeding them), there could be an air of puzzlement as to why this might be considered news, but also a sense of relief that our current flavour of regulator might finally be getting it.

Of course, there is political mileage in making as much of all this as possible. The future of this regulator is pretty shaky, to say the least.

Here we are in this post crunch world, suffering as a result of the drive of successive governments to 'free up' the banking industry with what now seems like pretty reckless deregulation. Deregulation that was overseen by who? The regulators.

So are things changing where they need to? Take a look at this.

Feel confident?