Congratulations to the Consumers Institute for further highlighting shonky (”scandalously poor”) practices in the financial advisory industry. The solutions are pretty obvious but still ages away it seems. I liked this quote from one of Consumers’ expert reviewers about what is needed
It could be done tomorrow. They should have to provide a disclosure document of one or two pages, standardised across the industry, which allows customers to compare apples with apples. It’s not hard, but this industry makes it damn near impossible.
Not much point in blaming people, but if one was in such a mood prime candidates would be the Securities Commission and the last government.
Also this morning, the RNZ Herald gets it wrong in an editorial on credit card surcharging. Surcharging was the Commerce Commission’s only victory in the hideously expensive “interchange” litigation I’ve discussed before. Retailers are now allowed to add any amount they like if you pay by credit card. The Herald says
If being confronted at the point of sale with the cost of credit causes shoppers to pause, it may be no bad thing. If it promotes competition between card companies that will be good for everyone – except banks. And they may be surprised to find how little public sympathy they command.
The banks are not to blame. It is the international card schemes (Visa and MasterCard) that have been insisting on rules to prevent surcharging, overuling local bank opposition in some instances. And neither should the banks really care too much – they run the EFTPOS system after all.