The Times reported Shane Mullins, chief executive of the financial services company Fiscal Engineers, became “hugely disenchanted” with the industry’s attitude.
He told the paper he could not continue to push consumers to trust in financial services while industry leaders “singularly fail to face the question of trust”.
He told The Times: “An industry that delivers nearly 10% of our GDP and should be one of the great poster children of our commercial activity is in an appalling state.
“Unless we tackle and arrest the challenges the industry faces, collectively, together, and get greater collaboration, we’re going to keep going round the merry-go-round and the poor consumer is going to be left confounded.”
Mullins is returning to running his business full-time.
Despite Mullins pulling out, the Question of Trust campaign will go on. Former IFA James Dickens, who is part of the remaining team taking the campaign forward, confirmed today that Mullins’ withdrawal does not mean the drive is being scrapped.
He said: “After a year of campaigning, we have seen a real lack of interest from the industry and the regulator to grab hold of and arrest the issues [highlighted in the campaign], and deal with them,” said Dickens, consultant and director of JD Consulting UK.
“Shane wanted to raise the profile of the issues within the industry, put some metrics in place to be able to evidence those issues and then position it such that the regulator or some suitable body could run the proposals that have been developed and worked up.
“But after a year, it has been very difficult to get that engagement.”
Dickens said he will continue to work alongside Nick Cann, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP), Keith Tondeur, president of Credit Action, and Professor Christine Ennew, pro vice chancellor at the University of Nottingham, to take the campaign forward.
“Cann is very interested in harnessing what has been done by the campaign and continue to run with it within the context of the IFP – to continue championing trust within the industry as a sort of work stream to what the IFP is doing,” Dickens added.
