To weaken the previous regulatory stance back to the ability for large corporates to churn out endless non-advised sales does take us back down potentially dangerous roads again.
On the flip-side, it's clear that for some products a level of relaxation should be applied by regulators and providers, for example short-term savings arrangements of instant access savings or notice period fixed savings accounts with a guaranteed low-risk investment environment.
At the moment financial advisers have little or no access to savings products from providers in such a category and it's clear that a large amount of the UK population have little or no savings to their names.
In the past it was far easier for advisers to recommend a level of saving and we are losing an awful lot of growth potential for these products if advice firms are not able to recommend and instigate with providers a simple and low-risk savings plan.
To have employees in their twenties now exploring a bitcoin environment as a savings route, as there is very little opportunity for a savings provider to get in front of them, does make for sad reading.
Discussions of this nature can very easily be included in a first-time buyer mortgage application process by financial advisers on even a no-advice basis, as long as the product is safely ring-fenced.
But sadly the industry isn't demonstrating enough enthusiasm to fix the very obvious savings gap that exists.
There is an awful lot that can and needs to be done with UK financial services to make it more 2024, but we don't agree that this should come with firms walking away from responsibility for products that they arrange off the back of these technical solutions, especially for more complicated transactions.
Gary Bush is a financial adviser at Mortgage Shop
