Sesame Bankhall slams "intrusive" FSA
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Sesame Bankhall executive chairman Ivan Martin (pictured) has hit out at the “intrusive” FSA, saying it failed in its duties “when needed most”.
Speaking at the Sesame Symposium in London this morning, Martin was critical of the way the FSA has regulated the industry.
He said: “We have an intrusive regulator that has been criticised, broken up and rebadged; a regulator accused of failing in its duties when needed most.”
He said Sesame would challenge the new regulator in future, but that advisers need to face up to regulatory challenges.
He said: “That does not mean we will not challenge the regulator where it is warranted, but neither can we bury our heads in the sand. The bottom line is we have to face up to the challenge and accept we have to manage our risks in new and better ways than ever before.”
Martin reiterated Sesame’s support for Money Marketing’s Pave the Way To Save campaign, which calls for the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority to have a statutory obligation to have regard for increasing savings and protection levels and is exploring ways of creating a better savings culture.
He said: “It must be right to build up your retirement fund, save for the future and protect yourself against the unforeseen events that happen in your life. But the regulator does not have a clear objective to stimulate those things.
“I believe that Money Marketing editor Paul McMillan and his team deserve credit for harnessing industry opinion and building momentum behind this positive initiative, with the Pave the Way To Save campaign.”
Martin also confirmed that Sesame Bankhall is launching an investment platform called Sesame One.
He said: “As a businessman involved in technology for the last 33 years, I am convinced that wrap platforms are the key to driving greater operational efficiency. The customer of the future will be more demanding and only those businesses that meet those demands in a profitable way will survive.”
Martin said full details will be announced at 3pm today.
In September, Money Marketing revealed that Sesame Bankhall Group had recruited Intrinsic and Positive Solutions directors as part of a senior management reshuffle aimed at setting up an investment platform.
The group created a new unit, headed by Sesame Bankhall chief operating officer Stephen Young, to deliver the platform and appointed Intrinsic Financial Services founding director George Higginson to take over as chief operating officer from Young. Positive Solutions marketing director Keith Gilmour joined Sesame Bankhall in October as business development director.
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Readers' comments (10)
Exasperated me | 15 Nov 2010 12:34 pm
Talk is cheap.
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Julian Stevens | 15 Nov 2010 1:05 pm
The FSA's response to this will be that the RDR is going to sort everything out (and hang the cost because we, the FSA, won't have to shoulder any of it) and the IFA sector will become a perfect environment, providing great outcomes at low prices for everyone, delivered by highly qualified advisers doing their jobs for the good of mankind and certainly not for anything as tawdry as commercial profit.
The problem of the banks will remain largely unaddressed, though ~ bit of an unfortunate spanner in the whole works that one, but hey, you can't get everything right. It's the IFA sector that's really in needs of sorting out ~ everyone knows that.
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Mr Old Fashioned | 15 Nov 2010 1:12 pm
Am I seeing things or have I just read an atricle about a Chief Executive of a regulated firm publicly criticising its regulator?
Its regulator, by the way, that can act as its prosecuting counsel, judge, jury, and its executioner.
I applaud the bravery of Ian Martin and regret the fact that it has to be called bravery.
It is about time that more firms who felt that they had been treated unfairly were prepared to take the regulator on.
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Rebadged old school designs its replacement | 15 Nov 2010 1:22 pm
He said: “We have an intrusive regulator that has been criticised, broken up and rebadged; a regulator accused of failing in its duties when needed most.”
Hoban takes advice from a string of bankers, advisers to bankers and former FSA officials.
The word is "rebadged" and just look at how the old school is designing the new school.
His nine strong team includes:
Michael Foot, former FSA managing director;
Carol Sergeant, chief risk director at Lloyds Banking Group; and
Nick Prettejohn, former Prudential UK chief executive.
Davide Taliente, partner at Oliver Wyman,
Simon McGuire, former vice chairman of UBS's investment banking division,
Jonathan Herbert, former head of European law at the FSA
Amanda Harvie former chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise,
Teresa Perchard, director of public policy for Citizens Advice; and
John Tattersall former chairman of financial services regulatory practice at PwC.
NB: Foot, Sergeant and Herbert are all ex FSA, Tattershall is the former boss at PWC when Hoban and Chris Cummings were both there, Sergent, Taliente and McGuire either bankers or advise bankers.
This is a small club and guess who’s not in it – the IFA! The sum total of this groups reads to me like a pro RDR, FSA and banking club.
NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WANT TO KILL THE IFA OFF?
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Anne Sparrowhawk | 15 Nov 2010 1:29 pm
Strange how its only now that Sesame Bankhall hits out at the “intrusive” FSA, and says it failed in its duties “when needed most”. By them or the IFA member? What about the times that the FSA has made it easier for them in the past by forcing members to go through the network with a matter of grave concern rather than being allowed to go the FSA direct, which would have ensured the matter was reported to the FSA?
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Tom Baigrie | 15 Nov 2010 2:01 pm
Ivan's words are professional and right. Commentator 1 is rude and wrong. Saying publicly where the FSA is wrong is a very brave thing for a chairman of a regulated business to do. If the industry is to ever achieve a regulator that worries as much about the health of the nation's financial services as it does on making ever more hurdles for good advisers to overcome; more IFA business leaders need to speak out more often. But if what greets their courage is stupid anonymous remarks their impact is greatly reduced. I wish Money Marketing would ban anonymous rudeness and live with fewer, more intelligent, comments.
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Bob Donaldson | 15 Nov 2010 3:27 pm
Congrats to whoever wrote the list of who is who above. I could not have named more than two of them but then again I can't join the club so why bother learning who is in and who is out.
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Alan Newman | 15 Nov 2010 9:54 pm
I'm not a fan of the FSA - as a consumer I do not see how polarisation, TCF or RDR have really made life better for me and it's good for people to push back on The Regulator, but this patronising industry claptrap irritates me. Protection is not a 'slam dunk' and it's time to retire retirement.
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Evan Owen | 16 Nov 2010 5:41 pm
The regulator is in a state of flux.
The government doesn't know what to do.
The same people who made a hash of regulation in the past are going to do unto us once more. The crises get bigger each time, the answer is....
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Ewart Matthias | 17 Nov 2010 11:44 am
Tom Baigrie I think commentator 1 was being sarcastic, or at least I hope so.
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