The campaign groups are lobbying the government and regulators ahead of next year’s general election to fix the regulatory and legal imbalance they are concerned could stifle the mutual sector.
The document, A Manifesto for Financial Mutuals, is aimed at levelling the playing field between shareholder controlled companies and mutually-owned providers. It hopes to achieve a better deal for consumers, a level playing field for financial mutuals, a rational approach by regulators to capital and a more co-ordinated approach to promoting mutuals.
Martin Shaw, chief executive of the AFM, said:”Consumers are being left with little choice but to go back to the very firms that caused the last recession in the first place. Far from fostering diversity and ensuring the financial sector is more resilient, the present regulatory landscape is tilted towards a one size fits all model.
“It should be a national scandal that not a single new mutual has been set up since the last decade of the last century. Politicians need to translate their aspirations for greater diversity into concrete actions to help the financial mutuals sector to compete on level terms, and to deliver a fairer marketplace for consumers.”
