As the UK government and financial regulators explore ways to encourage more individuals to invest in stocks and shares, the debate around cash savings and investment incentives is gaining momentum. Steven Cameron, Pensions Director at Aegon, welcomes the collaboration between the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in finding the right balance. However, he cautions that potential reforms, such as cutting back cash ISA allowances, could add complexity without necessarily improving consumer understanding of investment trade-offs.
With upcoming consultations as part of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, in his analysis below, Cameron highlights the need for targeted support to help individuals with significant savings make informed investment decisions. While previous proposals for ‘core investment advice’ were shelved, their objectives remain central to the FCA’s long-term strategy. This article explores the evolving landscape of savings and investments, considering both regulatory developments and broader market conditions.
Cameron says: “It’s good to see the Treasury working with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to look at the best balance for individuals between cash savings and stocks and shares investments. One option might be to reform the ISA regime by cutting back cash ISA allowances. But this may not be the best way forward, potentially complicating the ISA regime while not helping consumers understand the trade-offs.
“The FCA and Treasury are already working together on ‘targeted support’ as part of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review. We’ve been promised a further consultation, covering both pensions and retail investments, by the mid-year. This is likely to revisit scrapped proposals, previously labelled ‘core investment advice’, which had the objective of supporting the 4.2 million individuals1 with over £10,000 in savings and an appropriate risk appetite to invest more in stocks and shares.
“While core investment advice has been replaced by targeted support, these aims feature again in the FCA’s recent 5 year plan2, where a measure of success will be ‘A higher proportion of consumers (with £10K+ in investible assets) holding mainstream investments, helping people save for later life’.
“When making this choice, it’s likely many individuals will be influenced by the level of interest available on cash savings and the performance and volatility of stockmarkets, both of which are hard to predict in the months and years ahead.
However, despite the drive for pensions to invest more in UK equities, it’s worth noting that so far, there are no indications the Government is planning to look again at the previous Government’s scrapped British ISA proposals.”
