New Tisa chief is proving he is not the retiring kind

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by

David Dalton-Brown has been in the industry a long time. He was head of Fidelity Fundsnetwork and business development director of Prudential before retiring in 2013.

However, late last year, he got the call to take the post of director general of Tisa. He was already sitting on the board, and decided that full-time retirement was a little bit too comfortable, so he eagerly took up the mantle.

He said: “I have been closely associated with Tisa for a number of years. When I was asked if I was interested I saw it as a great opportunity to use my experience to give something back.

“This is my second attempt to retire. The first attempt I got bored. You can only travel so much, read so many books, go through so much of your bucket list. Work has many benefits. You’ve got your challenges and working towards a particular goal.”

Mr Dalton-Brown plans to work four days a week as part of the compromise he made with his family.

Tisa is what Mr Dalton-Brown calls an “industry-led association” – effectively a lobbying group consisting of 150 firms across financial services, including investment banking, insurance and distribution.

Tisa business consists of a number of councils meeting regularly to discuss issues of policy, and areas where they would like to see improvement.

Mr Dalton-Brown said: “Everybody has to leave their commercial guns at the door. One of the golden rules is there’s absolute confidentiality on the councils. We do not talk about the product part of the industry or firms – it is more about what is the right policy for the consumer and the nation.”

It is this last point that Mr Dalton-Brown sees as the main motivating principle of Tisa: “We put the consumer and nation first. The members believe if we get it right for the consumer and nation, financial services and the UK will be strong.”

This motivation has driven the latest initiative from Tisa, which is the proposal to introduce a ‘digital passport’. The concept is for a person to have all his financial details in one place, so that when he moves house or job, all his policies and accounts are automatically updated.

Mr Dalton-Brown said: “The government has got the infrastructure already. If you go through Gatwick, you already have a digital passport.

“With a financial digital passport there will be benefits to the consumer – if someone changes their address seven times throughout their life and change job 11 times, a lot of people lose track of their savings. But if you change your address once on your digital record you won’t have to send your address to all the banks and insurance companies.”

This could have implications for advisers. For example, if a client is set up on the system, which Mr Dalton-Brown said would be voluntary, and gave his adviser access to his data, an adviser could build an app for the client and put everything in one place for him.

One of the biggest campaigns that Tisa is managing is The Savings and Investment Policy (TSIP), a project aimed at pushing the need to develop a better savings culture further up the policy agenda.

Backed by more than 50 firms, the idea is to encourage a more savings, less debt-focused culture and influence the savings policy of regulators and government departments.

This emphasis on developing a savings culture is a central part of Mr Dalton-Brown’s beliefs about financial capability.

He said: “A lot of people say: ‘I can’t save because I can’t afford to.’ For a certain group of society, that’s true, they live on the cashflow of a weekly income.

“But after I left school, the first thing that was impressed on me when I started work was the need to save for pensions, and we were encouraged to contribute to the pension scheme. When you tried to get a mortgage, the bank manager would say you couldn’t get one unless you saved.

“I turn to young people around me and say: ‘You could save if you got rid of that £150 a month Sky and mobile account.’”

However, Mr Dalton-Brown adds that the banks are partly to blame, making it far harder to open a savings account than take out a loan, and the regulators also have to carry some of the blame, he said.

“Giving advice is becoming increasingly out of the reach of many people, because advisers are not able to support huge areas of society.

“I cannot even say: ‘You can put three months’ money away for a rainy day’, because that is deemed to be advice. We’re making saving too difficult, and simple advice and guidance too difficult. I think it is a culture and we have got things the wrong way around.”

For the industry veteran, trying to turn things around is something he is still working on as he embarks on his latest venture.

Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser

January 2015 to present

Director general, Tisa

2010-2013

Head of Barclays’ investment businesses and head of Barclays’ retail investment platform businesses

2005-2009

Head of Fidelity FundsNetwork platforms

Non executive roles:

Director of Barclays Asset Management Board

Director of Barclays Woolwich Plan Managers

Chairman of Tisa Exchange