befriending consumers July 3, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , add a commentAs people are finding it harder to be consumers, everyone wants to (seem to) be nice to them: the US Treasury published a bill to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the UK published a Consumer White Paper (A Better Deal for Consumers), and the EU Commission published a Communication which adopted a “consumer enforcement package” to strengthen EU-wide enforcement of consumer rules. The FSA announced that the new Chairman of the Financial Services Consumer Panel is to be Adam Phillips, who has been the Vice Chair. The previous Chair, Lord Lipsey, apparently thought the Panel should be more aggressive than did others at the FSA. I’m not sure how much of a champion of consumer rights Adam Phillips is - he is in the business of market research after all - but the Panel has been quite active in the last 6 months or so (under Phillips’ leadership) and has pushed the FSA to take consumer interests seriously.