A payday regulator

That is why people are increasingly turning to so-called payday lenders and other informal sources of loans to make ends meet. Consumer groups and middle class protestors with their regular incomes may condemn such forms of borrowing, and the reasons they give are often true.

But to the ordinary single mother, imprisoned in a high-rise flat with her toddlers screaming all day, the sight of the door-step lender or the opened window of the payday shop can be a lifesaver.

What is needed is not condemnation, but a way of regulating the payday lenders so that those households in desperate need of cash to put food on the table, who are turned down by the benefits office and who local banks would not even allow through the door, will still have a way of feeding their children.

Getting away with it

It is still unclear why the City regulator and the Serious Fraud Office have not pressed criminal charges against Ravi Sinha, the former European chief of private equity firm JC Flowers, if they have the evidence. If, as they allege, he had committed a criminal act, and was fined £2.9m and barred from working in the City by the FSA, then there appeared to have been a prima facie case against him.

By not pressing charges against the man who led the JC Flowers attempt to buy Northern Rock and Friends Provident, the FSA and SFO are clearly sending the wrong message to other senior executives who are tempted to behave in an unacceptable way.

According to the FSA, Mr Sinha’s undoing was greed, a moral weakness that our joint campaign on the question of Trust is meant to highlight. Even so, there is no logical reason why these alleged offences should not be tested in a court of law, whatever the expense.

If this reasoning is carried to its logical conclusion, we will have one law for the rich and famous whose crimes are believed to be so complex they would bamboozle a normal jury, and one for the poor guy fiddling a credit card.

A campaign you can trust

Our trust campaign is flying. Jointly sponsored with Fiscal Engineers, on behalf of the Institute of Financial Planning, the campaign has so far got the support of many leading adviser firms and others outside the industry.

One senior police officer, from a regional force, has even registered his support and is encouraging others to do likewise.

Integrity is the cornerstone of the financial services sector, more so than almost any other industry.

Let us join together to show the general public that they can trust financial advisers.