The FCA awakes?

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

This is a personal blog by ShareSoc director Cliff Weight and does not necessarily reflect the views of ShareSoc.

There is an excellent article in the Mail on Sunday today by Jeff Prestridge who is our key note speaker at the ShareSoc Woodford Webinar on 30 September – What happens next. click here to register 

In today’s article Jeff highlights that “the City regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – has finally woken up from its lockdown slumber and decided to go all bold on us…. Last week, the FCA revealed ambitious plans to turn a nation of savers into investors. It also promised to protect investors from scams and warn them away from higher-risk investments (usually involving cryptocurrencies).”

He also notes that “we’ve already had some 12 years of rock bottom interest (savings) rates and along the way far too many investors have been scammed or duped into buying near toxic investments”, but he also highlights the problem of holding too much cash “Under its proposals for an investment revolution, savers with big slugs of their money in cash (bank and building society savings accounts) will be encouraged to diversify into stock market investments. By 2025, the aim is to make investors of 1.7million adults who currently have more than £10,000 of investible assets sitting in cash – and who the regulator believes would be better off spreading their wings. As a result of paltry savings rates and persistent inflation (3.2 per cent at the last count), the FCA says these savers are at ‘risk’ of having the purchasing power of their war chest seriously eroded unless they take corrective action.”

“They would be better off, it says, building long-term wealth by investing in the stock market.” Jeff says. I could not agree more.

Mail articles are free to read (unlike the Times, Telegraph, FT, etc). Click here to read Jeff’s article.

 

 

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