Christine Farnish said:
"Under the new model, we believe the budget for MAS’s consumer finance education remit could roughly halve from £43 million at present, while serving consumer needs more closely. This is a high-level estimate and MAS, the FCA and the Treasury will want to review this as part of the transition."
Other proposals set out in the review include focusing MAS's efforts on ensuring that the wider market meets consumer needs and helps improve understanding and capability, rather than on directing them to a single public sector site. Additionally, Christine said that the service needs to significantly strengthen its position as a centre of expertise on consumer behaviour and understanding in financial services.
Caroline Rookes, Chief Executive for the Money Advice Service said:
“I welcome the review’s conclusion that the Service should play a greater role in co-ordinating and aligning the various initiatives across all sectors to provide improved advice and education to consumers.
“The review has challenged the way we do our money advice work in particular. All organisations need to evolve as circumstances change, especially new organisations such as ours.
"In addressing the money advice recommendations, we want to ensure that changes we make are genuinely in the interests of consumers and deliver value for money. We currently help thousands of people every day to take action to manage their money better and in contemplating changes, we must not let those consumers down.
“So we will now work closely with the FCA, the financial services industry, consumer groups, the voluntary sector and other experts, to assess how the recommendations could be implemented in a way that would best benefit consumers and enhance the financial capability of the UK.”
Otto Thoresen, author of the Thoresen Review which led to the creation of the Money Advice Service, said:
“Helping people become more financially resilient is more important today than ever. The report rightly points out that the world has changed since we published our review, particularly in the area of web based tools and information sources. We always saw MAS as a collaborative organisation working in partnership with existing providers of advice and guidance. I welcome the Farnish Review’s endorsement of that approach and the Financial Capability Strategy that MAS is leading, which embodies it.”
Christine Farnish concluded:
"MAS needs to reboot its business model. If my recommendations are followed, consumers’ ability to understand and navigate complex financial services markets will be enhanced.
"Critically, instead of competing as a public service provider in an already crowded market, MAS should work on behalf of consumers to strengthen the supply of good, accessible consumer financial information and guidance.
"MAS’s work on debt advice has been largely successful and has made a positive difference for consumers. The challenge now is to raise the ambition so more people can be helped with good quality, cost effective debt advice."
