The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Martin Wheatley has today highlighted the organisation’s responsibility to protect pension savers ahead of the new pension freedoms in April.
Speaking the National Association of Pension Funds investment conference in Edinburgh Martin Wheatley said: “There is rightly, a broad and important responsibility here on the FCA to protect consumers across the arc of adulthood: from first contribution to final pension payment.”
The speech discusses the FCA’s work in establishing new independent governance committees, putting in place a charge cap on the amount that can be charged on default funds and consumer protection with retirement risk warnings.
He also warned about the dangers of pension frauds and scams in light of the new freedoms: “One of the most important risks is the possibility that some customers in this first tranche to benefit from the new freedoms, will be targeted by criminal enterprise. Scams and fraud, we know, tend to proliferate at the moment of maximum uncertainty.
“Or the possibility that firms target consumers, before they hit 55, with pension liberation scams, persuading them to access their money before the rules allow access. A particular risk, given that many of those approaching retirement today will — unlike their parents’ generation — be carrying debts with them.”
Please click below to read a full copy of Martin Wheatley’s speech for the National Association of Pension Funds Investment Conference, which was delivered the afternoon of 11th March 2015.
