More formalised FinCoNet to fight for consumers' interests

I have just returned from lovely Lisbon fresh from the International Financial Consumer Protection Organisation (FinCoNet) Annual meeting where consumer financial protection was the order of the day, says CI's financial services expert Nicola O'Reilly.

And in news hot off the press, we will see a more formalised FinCoNet.

Consumers International, joined by Joao Fernandes from our Portuguese Member Deco Proteste, participated in the meeting as an observer and welcomed interest on our work around responsible lending and mobile payments.

So, what was the main business discussed among the financial supervisors and international organisations?

Well, as you would expect some time was taken to discuss how the organisation would be established.

FinCoNet now has a Governing Council and a Chair,  Bernard Sheridan, the Director of Consumer Protection at the Central Bank of Ireland, and soon to be CI webinar star.

The organisation will also be building its communications tools and membership on an ongoing basis.

It was confirmed that FinCoNet’s work will be done by its members, although it is set to have a small secretariat based at the OECD in Paris – once the agreements are finalised and the paperwork is completed.

The road and the work ahead remains unchanged from the FinCoNet workplan set out at its tenth meeting in London, with working groups focused on Supervisory Institutional Arrangements and Responsible Lending.

A report on responsible lending is due by the end of March next year.

This work will form the basis of recommendations to the G20 summit in Australia in 2014.

CI will run an open webinar on 4 December for an update on what’s happening with FinCoNet and the G20/OECD taskforce at 3pm GMT – details will be on our website soon.

Other consumer protection issues discussed included bank bundling and tying clauses, distorting incentives (a matter CI will be pursuing in 2014), and regulation of electronic banking and payments (CI is already on the case with this one by inputting into the ISO standard on mobile payments and OECD guidelines.

So, a final thought… following an interesting couple of days work, I joined 63,999 others at the Stadium de Luz for Portugal versus Sweden (Portugal won 1-0),  which, at least on the night, represented progress for Portugal on the bumpy road to Brazil for the World Cup in June 2014.

The second leg is on 19 November so we will have to see what happens then.

But what of Consumer’s progress on the road to the G20 in Australia? Well, we will have to wait and see what the first and second working groups can do to make it a road worth travelling.

Five scandals which prove we need better consumer justice

CI’s Digital Editor Vik Iyer looks back on five scandals which prove the need for improvements in global consumer protection as we mark World Consumers Rights Day 2013.
 

 iPhone5

 

There’s nothing like the glitz and glamour of an iPhone launch – the consequent media coverage makes you wonder if Apple actually need to advertise. For many loyal consumers though, iPhone 5 had a sting in its tail — Lightning —a new connector which effectively rendered millions of Apple accessories obsolete. As Stephen Russell of Anec, the European standardisation body, argued on our blog last year, the prospect of a universal connector for all mobiles seems a long way off.

Horsemeat

Supermarket giant Tesco was among a group of major retailers who discovered horsemeat in beef products on its shelves. In addition to providing a lot of bad jokes on social media, the story has hit consumer confidence hard. Swedish retailer Ikea has become embroiled in a similar scandal whilst other horsemeat contamination examples were found in France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The supermarket supply chain once again finds itself in the spotlight, with many wondering if consumers really benefit in a consolidated industry with only a few players.

Coca Cola

 

The Western media has been largely silent as Coca Cola continues to sell drinks which contain potentially cancer-causing toxins throughout parts of the developing world. Coke agreed to mend its ways in the US, and CI members are continuing the fight to get things changed in other countries, including in Kenya.

Money

The astonishing collapse of banks across the Western world coincided with growing scandals over the misselling of financial products. Banks and governments promise reform but there is still plenty of evidence that not much has changed. The Libor scandal  showed that massive global banks were prepared to rig interest rates and cause yet more consumer detriment. It seems consumer activism in this area will be vital.

Digital

Millions of us use social media. But an increasing number are starting to wonder if by using these free services, we’ve made ourselves the product. We’re worried about our privacy too, with recent worldwide issues at Hotmail only underlining how easy our virtual information can be accessed. Consumers who buy digital products are also being hit by questionable practices, such as being prevented from selling unwanted items second hand or being attacked by viruses so that they cannot copy CDs.

Read CI’s State of Consumer Protection survey or check out our infographic.