UK Consults On Simple Financial Products
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, has announced the publication
of a consultation document on Simple Financial Products.
The consultation sets out proposals for financial products that will help promote
personal responsibility, and enable consumers to compare products and understand
product features more clearly. The government considers that the proposals will
also help to encourage competition between providers.
The consultation proposes:
- Industry and consumer-led development of a new category of simple financial
products, with standardised features;
- That the first simple products to be developed should be deposit savings
and life and income protection insurance products;
- That simple products should not be subject to price-caps, and provision
should be voluntary.
The Government is now seeking input from consumer groups, the financial services
industry, and other interested parties, to develop simple products further.
Hoban said:
"The government is committed to helping consumers take responsibility
for their finances. In order to do this they need to be able to make sense of
the huge range of financial products in the market. Simple financial products
will help them to do that, by providing a safe choice and a common benchmark
against which other products can be compared.
"This is one of a series of reforms to ensure that consumers get a better
deal from financial services". |
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