FCA needs more scrutiny from parliament
Regarding the news that the Complaints Commissioner has criticised the Financial Conduct Authority over inaction by the regulator over adviser tip-offs (June 7): Basically, the Complaints Commissioner has determined that the FCA has not taken on board (or at least not put into practice) the lessons it claims to have learned from its previous failings, despite its routine claims to have done so.
Should the commissioner not recommend that the FCA draws up and publishes for all to see and to debate in open forum a whistleblowers’ charter?
Then again, even if it were to do so, who would oversee its adherence to such a charter?
No such body presently exists, even though it is quite obvious that one is needed, for which the prime candidate must surely be the Treasury Committee.
A few crocodile tears with promises to do better going forward are nothing more than a hollow charade of accountability.
We have seen it all before, countless times, yet nothing ever actually changes.
The FCA retains its free hand to set its own agenda, to do whatever it wants and to ignore that which it does not.
When is parliament going to wake up to and do something about this manifestly unsatisfactory state of affairs?
On that note, what has been Andrew Bailey’s response to calls from a cross-party committee of 16 MP’s for him to step down in the wake of the FCA’s completely inadequate handling of the London Capital & Finance debacle?
That was another train wreck waiting to happen, of which the FCA received plenty of reports with which it did nothing until it was far too late and the damage had been done.
Who will be billed for the compensation that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is now considering paying out to all the victims of the FCA’s ineptitude?
Julian Stevens
Harvest Financial
Scams left unresolved
On return from a recent holiday, there was a message on my voicemail. The voice was female with a strong US accent.
She told me that she was from HM Revenue & Customs and that there was a serious issue and that if I did not call back within the next 90 seconds there would be severe consequences.
Naturally, I recognised this as a scam.
I reported it to Action Fraud (by phone) and even played them the recording, which I later attached in an email with further particulars.
After about a month I received a letter from them in the post telling me that this was not their province and they would not be taking further action.
I have subsequently discovered that this call has been received quite widely.
Action Fraud? More like Inaction Fraud.
Harry Katz
HA7 Consulting
Bringing women into industry
Regarding the news that the FCA is focusing on personal misconduct (June 10): You do not get women at senior levels without them having come through from junior levels.
If we truly want 45 per cent of women at leadership levels then we need at least an equivalent percentage of the work force at junior levels, from which the senior levels are promoted.
Currently we have an appalling 17 per cent, much the same as the armed forces, which by its very nature is a male dominated profession.
We need to focus on ensuring we have a gender balance at the start of a person’s financial services career, so we need to work on attracting women.
This starts with our culture, which drives our industry perception: how men treat women in the financial services work place; the words they use; the things they do; understanding natural bias; and overcoming past discrimination, all take effort and that must come from the top – today’s company leaders.
We need to urgently address the issue of motherhood stepping out of the workplace and women reigniting their career, and how we can help them to step back successfully.
Only when the current leaders have provided the environment to engage and recruit at a junior level – and can then manage an internal culture that can keep women and also provide a pathway for mothers who may wish to return – will we have the numbers of women to attain our 45 per cent at a senior level.
Susan Hill
Susan Hill Financial Planning
Going back to basics
Regarding the news that HMRC data shows taxpayers have reported more than 2.6m communications from fraudsters pretending to be from HMRC over the past three financial years (June 7): This highlights the danger of high speed digital communications being used to scare and scam people.
It could easily be solved by HMRC reverting to ordinary postal mail.
Of course, this will not suit the Treasury in its pursuit of everything eventually being done online on a monthly basis, but it would save a lot of misery.
The digital age has many benefits and advantages for those of us who know how to use it safely; however, it also has unlimited advantages for scammers and hackers.
It has always been said ‘never put all your eggs in one basket’, but this has not stopped our leaders putting everything we do in one place – the digital highway.
The computer experts know that it is only a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ there is going to be a digital disaster across banking, utilities and infrastructure.
Clive Fox
Retired IFA
