Big Bang was enshrined in the Financial Services Act of 1988, which came into force in April 1989, in what was to be the first of many ‘A-days’ over the next 25 years.
In those days, advisers might have been part of Nasdim (not a US stockmarket index but a regulator) and the regulators to be reckoned with were SIB and Lautro.
Instead of RDR, we all discussed de-polarisation, the end of the MCA while MIPs were one of the easiest and probably most effective investment products ever sold.
It is doubtful Mrs Thatcher was ever intimately knowledgeable about many or any of these terms, but her chancellor was.
It may be an apocryphal story, but LAPR (life assurance premium relief) was apparently abolished after an Allied Dunbar salesman tried to use it as justification for a product sale to Chancellor Nigel Lawson. Nice story and it doesn’t matter if it is true or not.
But what Mrs Thatcher did kick-start was growth in the financial services industry, which saw it go from being a small part of the UK economy, to by some measure over 25% of the UK’s GDP.
As heavy industry, in the form of coal and steel in particular, rapidly reduced as a major employer in the UK, so financial services took over.
Indeed, it occurs to me that financial services in the 21st century is the coal industry of the 20th century.
The lessons should be there for all of us in this context. Embrace change or we will go the way that coal did by the end of the 1980s.
Your opinion of Mrs Thatcher and her politics very much depends on your age, and where you were born and brought up in the UK.
For some she was evil and was seen as the destructor of proud industries, to others she was a visionary who turned the country around from the malaise of the 1970s.
There is no doubt that the country needs a prime minister now with a genuine vision, rather than a vision of consensus as we have had for the last 15 years (yes I’m talking about Brown, Blair, Cameron and Clegg).
I had the privilege of hearing her speak about 10 years ago at a private dinner, and while not even then in the fullest of health, it is quite astonishing to have been in the presence of a political icon of the 20th century, whatever you think of her politics.
Ironically, the only thing I can equate it to is hearing Fidel Castro giving his annual speech on the July anniversary of the Cuban revolution in person. Two genuine demi-gods, polls apart.
Many in the UK will not mourn Mrs Thatcher, many in the industry will be too young to have experienced her impact first hand. But one thing is clear to me, her legacy to all of us is an industry of significant importance to the UK’s economy, and that is a responsibility we should all take extremely seriously.
Love her or hate her, without her most of us wouldn’t be doing the jobs we are today.
