After CI’s
latest event on financial consumer protection, Justin Macmullan takes stock of
the progress being made and the challenges ahead.
“What
progress has been made” was the big question being asked by the 80 or so
delegates at a one-day conference on financial consumer protection (FCP) coordinated
by Consumers International and the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue on 6 June
in Washington.
The answers
came from an impressive line up of speakers from the Mexican presidency of the
G20, the Financial Stability Board, the OECD, the World Bank and officials from
the US, Canada and the EU – a sure sign that CI is attracting the attention of
the big players in FCP.
The
conference was opened by David Vladeck from the US Federal Trade Commission and
Nicholas Rathod from the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who set the
scene with current examples of what US agencies are doing to protect consumers
of financial services.
The conference
then moved on to the three main sessions. The first session assessed progress
in the G20 process - something that CI is closely involved with, having played
an instrumental part in getting it off the ground in 2010.
Two years
after the launch of that campaign a lot has been achieved including a new set
of international principles, and proposals for a new international organisation
(FinCoNet) to support the development of financial consumer protection around
the world.
Juan Manual
Valle spoke for the Mexican government which holds the G20 presidency this year
and received considerable praise for Mexico’s openness to work with consumer
organisations and their efforts to link the G20’s work on financial inclusion
with consumer protection.
However, challenges
remain. Clear guidelines need to be developed on how the principles should be
implemented and plans for how their implementation is working will be reviewed. FinCoNet also needs to be established with
the resources and mandate to do an effective job.
The next
session moved the debate from the international to the regional and national.
With major changes in European and US financial regulation over the last two years,
there was a lot to discuss. What was striking was how common many of the
challenges were – top of the list being the need to establish an effective
organisation with a clear mandate and focus on financial consumer protection
and appropriate tools to do the job.
The final
session took on the issue of mobile banking – a development that is already
well established in some countries and is about to take off in many others.
Here there was an interesting debate around how to protect consumers’ security,
privacy and rights whilst not stifling innovation. A question of balance, or
smart regulation, that will no doubt continue as the technology spreads from
one country to another.
What was
clear from all the discussions was the value in sharing examples and
experiences between countries and the essential role that consumer
organisations have in ensuring consumers views are heard in these debates.
CI is
uniquely positioned to deliver on both these counts and will be continuing our
work on FCP with our international membership.
Financial services is a priority programme for CI as part of the Your
Rights, Our Mission | Strategy 2015.
A conference programme (pdf) and full list of speakers (pdf) is also available.
