Theresa May’s Tory conference attack on big business focused on how the housing, broadband and energy markets were not delivering for swathes of the country.
In the same vein, perhaps it is time to ask whether the financial services sector delivers positive outcomes for ordinary people?
Clearly it delivers in that most have some access to banking, savings, mortgages, investments, loans, credit cards and pensions. But scratch the surface and a harsher reality emerges. Millions no longer have access to bank branches.
That is all right if you are a swish City executive, but much harder if you are a pensioner or small business owner.
Then there are the millions of pensioners who struggle with the insistence many firms have of operating by internet or phone.I know plenty of bright, otherwise clear-minded pensioners who come to a juddering halt when a company demands the third and fifth letter of their phone password.
And what of the investment sector? To the general public it looks as though a relatively small number of people have become staggeringly rich from trading shares, running investment companies, and marketing funds.
Meanwhile, the millions who invest the cash that drives the UK economy, through their pensions and other investments, have often made poor returns. I am regularly challenged by people who have saved for decades yet find their pension is worth a pittance.
Our banking sector has consistently failed to support innovators and small businesses. On the contrary, it has exploited them by charging high interest rates and seeking to leech every last penny from them while driving them to the wall.
RBS’s Project Dash for Cash, which saw the bank encouraged to squeeze money from struggling firms, is the just the latest depressing example.
While they take taxpayer cash with one hand they seek to crush businesses with the other. I have reported on teenagers pushed into thousands of pounds of debt by bank charges, pensioners in their 90s sold long-term investments and self-employed people sold unemployment insurance from which they could never claim.
Debt charity StepChange says that between 6,000 and 10,000 people are contacting it every month because they are swamped by bank overdraft charges. A functioning sector would create wealth for savers and investors while providing support and opportunities through credit for those who need to borrow.
And, yes, middlemen do need to make a profit. Managing people’s money is a huge responsibility and deserves to be rewarded. But those rewards can outstrip all sensible proportions while the incentives for profiting from the failure or difficulties of businesses and individuals are far too great.
The over-riding aim of our financial services sector is to create wealth for the financial services sector. That is not how it should be. Financial services should work for the benefit of the whole economy and the whole population – not just a privileged few.
Legal compliance
Will the government heed the Pensions Regulator’s request for greater powers to ensure employers are complying with the law? Forcing employers to forewarn the regulator of mergers or major changes would allow it to step in earlier rather than leaving it to pick up the pieces when damage has already been done.
Protection for pensions should be a cornerstone of financial regulation. If investors suspect pensions are unsafe then trust in investing and saving can quickly break down.
It was an indictment of regulation and the will of government to protect pensions that more than 20 years after Maxwell stole his employees' pensions, BHS employees were left with severely underfunded pensions.
Philip Green may not be a thief like Maxwell, but there can be little question that he wilfully neglected the BHS pension scheme. It is not just that the Pensions Regulator needs more power, it is also that trustees need to be better protected from bullying employers who can influence them into neglecting their responsibilities to scheme members.
Holiday cash
Going on holiday? Then do not buy your cash at the airport. That is common sense to many of us and I doubt many of you have ever done it, because if you do you will be clobbered. Last week money changers at the airports were routinely offering less than parity against the euro.
Many of the same firms offer a reasonable rate in the high street or by post or on internet orders. They are banking on travellers being harassed and hurried.
But why should they be allowed to set different rates at different locations? It is another example of how financial services lets the consumer down.
