oft study February 4, 2010
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , add a commentThe OFT has announced a new market study:
The OFT would welcome views and evidence on when and how contracts cause problems for consumers or firms. It will be contacting key parties directly, including Government departments and consumer bodies. Others who wish to make a submission should visit www.oft.gov.uk/consumer-contracts or email consumercontracts@oft.gsi.gov.uk.
action on bank bonuses January 20, 2010
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedJohn Harris has a better way of showing disapproval of the fact that UK taxpayers are subsidising bank bonuses than Billy Bragg (at least his solution is legal):
If you have money in a bank whose pay structures strike you as iniquitous, put it somewhere else. As an RBS customer about to jump ship, my own choice is the Co-operative Bank, freshly merged with the Britannia Building Society. Their executives are hardly paupers … but their pay policy falls short of arrogant insanity – and as proof of their bona fides as both progressives and prudent operators, they make a lot of their ethical investment policy and proud avoidance of the financial instruments that got most other banks into such a mess.
uk consumer focused consultations December 3, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closed
I’m working on a paper on consultation at the moment. The paper really focuses on consultation in the context of transnational standard-setting, but I’m also looking at consultation in the domestic context as well. My initial starting point was that there is much more coherence in the structure and uses of consultation domestically than transnationally (and this may in fact be so in the US under the APA) but variations in consultation practice in the UK seem to shake this up a bit.
This week the UK’s BIS has published two new consultations: one on provision of financial services via post offices and the other on the role and powers of the Consumer Advocate. The post office consultation has a dedicated web page, which has a cute picture of a piggy bank (above), and a short video, and states:
We want to hear about the financial services you would like to see at your local Post Office
The other consultation doesn’t have cute pictures. The consumer advocate consultation document has a white cover, and the other one has a nice picture of a friendly looking post office worker. Both consultation periods opened yesterday, but the consumer advocate consultation runs to March 5th whereas the post office consultation closes on February 24th. The responsible ministers are different: Kevin Brennan for the consumer advocate and Peter Mandelson for the post office. So the variations could be due to the differences in the people involved, or could reflect an assessment that the post office consultation is more salient given the impending election.
talking about credit cards November 16, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedWe just had an announcement that our faculty and staff assistance program is holding a seminar on credit cards where the speaker will apparently:
review ways to responsibly maximize the use of credit cards.
I think it is likely that those words don’t quite get across what they mean. If they meant show how to use credit cards responsibly, why didn’t they say so?
financial inclusion October 20, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedThe UK Government is congratulating itself on having reduced the numbers of the unbanked (although the report points out that some of the “improvement” results from recharacterizing the status of some survey respondents (people who did not state whether they had a bank account had been treated as being unbanked and are now not so treated)). The press release makes it sound as though people who open a bank account get a whole range of automatic benefits. But that isn’t exactly what the report says. Poorer people who need to control carefully the expenditure of small amounts of money may not have access to some of the ways in which wealthier people save money (such as by using direct debit). This is sort of obvious. For example:
In December 2008 the Taskforce published a report on direct debit energy payments. We found significant risks to promoting monthly direct debit payments to low-income households, which often manage their money on a weekly basis. Our report also noted that direct payments do not provide households with the same control over their energy consumption and payments as pre-payment meters. Since then, a report by the Creative Environments Network found that “[fuel]rationing behaviour and being in debt with fuel suppliers were closely related to a household’s financial behaviour”.. This work suggests that it may be unrealistic to expect low income households to take advantage of discounts available for monthly direct payments. Government and service providers may therefore need to consider new ways to reduce transaction charges for more frequent bill payments by poorer households.
It’s not just about the bank account.
eu funding for consumer organizations July 9, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedThe EU’s Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC) has issued a call for applications for funding for consumer organizations:
Financial support may be awarded towards the functioning of two types of European organisations:
- those which have as their primary objectives and activities the promotion and protection of the health, safety and economic interests of consumers in the Community…
- those which have as their primary objectives and activities to represent consumer interests in the standardisation process at Community level…
befriending consumers July 3, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedAs 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.
guardian highlights new fsa failing June 19, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedMuch of the investor education movement involves information provided by firms who hope to make money out of customers by seeming to be friendly to their needs. The Guardian’s disclosures about the FSA’s moneymadeclear website (“helping you with your money”) today perhaps suggest the UK needs a consumer protection regulator as much as the US does:
The FSA’s site, Moneymadeclear, was set up to provide easy-to-understand and independent information and tools to help consumers learn about financial products.
While the site offers purpose-built tools to help people compare mortgages and savings accounts, the only link for comparison sites on its cards and loans page is to LendersCompared.org.uk, which is paid for by the largest home credit companies in the UK….
The cheapest rate Guardian Money could find quoted on the LendersCompared site was in excess of 120% APR, while the most expensive – a £100 home collected loan from CLC Finance repaid in 15 instalments of £10 a week – has an APR of 1,303.2% APR.
consumers and financial regulation February 2, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedIn a speech the other day, Luis Aguilar of the SEC argued for greater representation of consumers’ interests in the rule-making process (which is one of my preoccupations):
A complementary proposal is the formation of a federal advisory committee to make recommendations for improving retail investor participation in Commission business and for improving the usefulness to retail investors of Commission rules. As we seek to improve our regulatory process and adopt better rules, I think it is important to provide retail investors with an active voice in our policymaking, since much of what we do often affects retail investors who do not routinely have contact with members of the Commission or its staff, too often do not submit comment letters, may not be well-versed in the securities or administrative laws, and may not effectively be represented by industry groups. Establishing a federal advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (or FACA) consisting mostly of retail investors to provide advice and guidance on our rules and on our ways of interacting with these investors could be very useful. I believe direct retail investor input would be helpful toward restoring the confidence of retail investors in the SEC — they can again know that we work for them and are their advocate. Such a committee also could play a key role in our efforts to address issues of importance to retail investors and provide a useful forum for their views to be more effectively incorporated into the Commission’s work.
lord lipsey at the treasury select committee December 4, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedBrowsing the UK parliament’s website I notice that the Treasury Select Committee is scheduled to meet on December 15 to hear oral evidence on the work of the FSA in 2007-8. Here’s the list of people who are to be speaking:
Lord Lipsey, Chairman, Financial Services Consumer Panel, Nick Prettejohn, Chairman, Financial Services Practitioner Panel, Simon Bolam, Chairman, Smaller Businesses Practitioner Panel, Which?; Lord Turner, Chairman, and Hector Sants, Chief Executive, Financial Services Authority
Could be interesting…