Time to build trust in financial services
Vertical integration has become an issue and the Australian financial services industry has to work to restore public trust, according to PWC Asset and Wealth Management leader, Anthony James.
Addressing the opening plenary of the Financial Services Council (FSC) Leaders Summit as the spokesman for the platinum sponsor, James suggested that overseas experience had provided proof that the vertically-integrated model was under threat, citing the exit of major entities such as Barclays and Santander from wealth management.
He said that hundreds of thousands of jobs had already been lost to the financial services industry in the US and the UK and the recent Brexit decision had placed a question mark over where financial services institutions would choose to be based.
James said that in Australia, the media had gone looking for scandals in the financial services industry and that, unfortunately, they had not been difficult.
He said that it was against this background that there was a need for honest reflection about why public trust had been undermined in the financial services industry and institutions in circumstances where recent research revealed only around 30 per cent of people said they expected banks could be trusted to do the right thing.
James said this lack of trust had also had a flow-on effect in terms of attracting the best talent, with young people choosing not to work for an industry the public does not trust.
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