Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 25 October 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
FCA records 40% rise in complaints about non-financial misconduct
The Financial Conduct Authority has recorded a 40% increase in non-financial misconduct complaints including bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination last year.
The findings are from the FCA’s survey, which looks at how investment banks, brokers and wholesale insurance firms record and manage allegations of non-financial misconduct.
The survey of over 1,000 firms found that the number of allegations reported increased between 2021 and 2023.
The Wellesley Grove Journal
Hosting the MM Awards this year was comedian Lucy Porter, who did such a fantastic job of pointing out how full of acronyms this industry is, we wanted to highlight it here….
“I wanted to find out more about you, so I asked Tom and his lovely team, and they said that these are the Money Marketing Awards, or the MMAs.
“They said that, in the room tonight, we might have CEOs, CFOs, MDs and VPs from companies like CCLA, HSBC, HL, AJ Bell and M&G.
“They said some of you might be members of the PFS, the CII or the CISI. They said you might have MCSI after your name, or be a proud owner of a DipFa or RQF Level 4 diploma.”
“They said you might be responsible for overseeing your company’s ESG framework, CSR policies, DNI initiatives, maybe even GDPR compliance.
“They said you’re probably interested in how developments such as new AI models, like ChatGPT, will affect your industry. And they said, whoever you are, you’ve got to hit your KPIs, get a good ROI for investors, all as the FCA breathes down your neck.
“And obviously, like the rest of us, you’re probably wondering whether HMG and the BoE are doing enough about inflation on the RPI, while also hoping everything’s going to be A-OK with the UK’s GDP now that GB said TTF ends with the EU.
“And, at that point, I just thought, ‘OMG, WTF, LOL — your industry’s full of BS.’”
Quote Of The Day
Keeping a pot for life will make it far easier to keep track of and boost engagement as members can see their pension grow in one place rather than having a fragmented picture through scattered pensions
– Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis, Hargreaves Lansdown comments on the lost pension problem, with an estimated 3.3m pots going astray.
Stat Attack
Ahead of National Pension Tracing Day this Sunday (27 October), new research from digital wealth manager, Moneyfarm, has found that:
29%
of the nation have no idea how many pension pots they have – believing that they probably have around £13,303 sitting across approximately three ‘lost’ pension plans – yet a whopping
79%
say they don’t know how to begin tracking them down.
27%
say having multiple different pots is inevitably hard to keep track of, leading to feelings of worry and frustration.
18%
say they are unconcerned because they believe there is plenty of time to track them down later in life.
Source: Moneyfarm
In Other News
The Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) has announced ambitious plans for 2025 as part of its annual membership presentation.
The plans outlined will see the continuation of some of the organisation’s key work, including 7Advisers, Income Protection Action Week, workstream meetings and the return of the Let’s Talk IP podcast.
It will also include several ambitious projects for the year ahead focusing on the organisation’s key objectives – education, collaboration and insight.
The group also announced an organisational restructure, including the introduction of a Board to provide professional oversight.
Andrew Wibberley will step down as co-chair after four years, with Jo Miller becoming managing director and Board chair, and Vicky Churcher becoming executive director and vice chair.
From Elsewhere
Keir Starmer hints at tax rises on people with income from assets (The Guardian)
UK consumer and business confidence weaken ahead of Budget (Financial Times)
Europe seeks to underpin Russia sanctions, fearing Trump overhaul (Reuters)
Did You See?
The government appears to have four key objectives ahead of its first Budget next week:
- Cover the £22bn black hole it has uncovered
- Make the UK pension system less or non-dependent upon state support
- Encourage the UK population to become more financially self-reliant
- Encourage investment in UK business
Richard Hulbert, insight analyst at Defaqto, makes some predictions ahead of the Budget.
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