The Consumer Panel today welcomed the FSA Board's decision to keep in place the rule known as RU64, which requires financial advisers to tell clients about the existence of low cost stakeholder pensions when advising on pensions generally.

The Consumer Panel had advised the FSA and its Board that the promotion of the simple pension with the lowest charges – the stakeholder – to those who most needed it, would not happen unless advisers had a specific direction that they must highlight its existence to consumers for whom it is most suitable.

The Chairman of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, John Howard said:

"This is a good decision on consumer protection from the FSA. Recent research showed that advisers do not always recommend products which provide limited or no financial gain to them, and abandoning the requirement to point out the existence of stakeholder pensions could have led to misselling especially in the run up to the introduction of the new National Pensions Savings Scheme."

– ends –

MEDIA ENQUIRIES