The Financial Services Consumer Panel has today published its annual report for the year April 2002 to March 2003. As the Consumer Panel has been set up to represent consumer interests and advise the FSA on its policies and practices, the annual report represents a review of the activities of the FSA over the year from the point of view of consumers.

The Chairman, in his foreword to the annual report, highlights four key messages for the FSA and the Government over the next year:

1. If the FSA wants to improve public confidence and consumer protection, then it must develop faster processes in dealing with new problems affecting consumers. This ranges from taking timely action to deter firms from mis-selling potentially difficult products, such as precipice bonds and split caps, to dealing quickly and openly with misleading financial advertising.

2. The FSA must make sure that individual consumers are given sufficient consumer protection, no matter how simple or complex the products. This means that new developments such as the FSA's plans for the structuring of financial advice, known as 'de-polarisation', and the Government's plans for simplified investment products as recommended by the Sandler Report will be watched carefully by the Consumer Panel over the coming year.

3. The FSA should aim for rules that are more consistent across the range of business it regulates, so consumers know what to expect from the 'FSA brand'. For example, the new 'Key Facts' documents, which firms must give customers to explain things in plain language, will improve information on traditional packaged products such as endowments. The Consumer Panel believes Key Facts documents should also be required for complex products such as high-income bonds.

4. The FSA must do all it can to help consumers to get better access to advice. The Consumer Panel has continued to raise this issue over the past year, and has been pleased with the FSA's initial progress on a Financial Healthcheck computer program. However, much more needs to be done by both the Government and the FSA over the next year.

Colin Brown, Chairman of the Panel said:
"Consumer confidence took a series of knocks last year because of falls in the stock market and the high-profile mis-selling problems. The FSA is building a new system of regulation that aims to make consumers safer and get the best from the market. The Consumer Panel is urging the FSA to make sure ordinary people have all the protection they deserve and all the help they need. If the new regime falls short, then there will be no winners - consumers will continue to lose out, and confidence will stay low."

Enquiries
Media:
Rebecca Tabor: 020 7066 0902
(Mobile): 07971 660368

A full list of Panel news releases, publications and consultation response papers can viewed at the Financial Services Consumer Panel website at: www.fs-cp.org.uk.

Notes to editors

1. The Consumer Panel's full response to HM Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions' Consultation - Proposed product specifications for Sandler "stakeholder" products - and FSA Discussion Paper 19 - Options for regulating the sale of "simplified investment products" - is available from the Consumer Panel Secretariat - 020 7066 0902 - or from the Panel's website at www.fs-cp.org.uk.

2. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) established the independent Financial Services Consumer Panel in December 1998 to advise its Board on the interests and concerns of consumers and to report on the FSA's performance in meeting its objectives. The Consumer Panel has statutory status. The FSA must consider its representations and, if it disagrees with a view expressed or proposal made in the representation, it must give the Panel a statement in writing of its reasons for disagreeing.

3. The emphasis of the Panel's work is on activities that are regulated by the FSA, although it may also look at the impact on consumers of activities outside but related to the FSA's remit.

4. The Consumer Panel brings together a wide range of relevant experience. This includes financial services regulation, working with vulnerable consumers, consumer protection, consumer education, front-line money advice, legal expertise, competition policy, public policy analysis, market research and media.

5. There are currently thirteen members of the Panel as listed below (for further information on individual members, see the Panel's Web site at www.fs-cp.org.uk):-

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