My mortgage payments are down dramatically and so are those of the millions who also have an average mortgage on their middle priced homes. Less to pay on your mortgage means more left over for those other things that people want to spend their money on. Such as investing for their future which is where you come in. The opportunities for the financial services industry are increasing. Standards are a lot higher now than they were when the Financial Services Act was introduced.
Firms are more professional.
New products are coming on the market. As many of you will be aware I am not in favour of wholesale structural change of the FSA as that would be divisive, disruptive and expensive for the industry. I do however favour change within the Act. I want to see prescriptive regulation, which tends to be seen as burdensome, reduced and I encourage any of you here today that are PIA members to respond to the discussion paper due to be published in the summer. I also commend two IMRO initiatives they announced recently in their regulatory plan.