Health warnings on financial products
*Wednesday, 8 July 2009* [image: Chancellor Alistair Darling is to suggest using alerts, similar to those already employed on cigarettes and fatty food, for pensions and mortgages] <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/health-warnings-on-financial-products-1736447.html?action=Popup> * * Chancellor Alistair Darling is to suggest using alerts, similar to those already employed on cigarettes and fatty food, for pensions and mortgages *Financial products could come with "health warnings" saying how risky they are, under proposals being unveiled by the Treasury today. * * Chancellor Alistair Darling is to suggest using alerts, similar to those already employed on cigarettes and fatty food, for pensions and mortgages. * * The idea will feature in the Government's long-awaited White Paper on enhancing stability in the wake of the credit crunch. * * A three-pronged strategy will focus on beefing up regulation, improving management of banks, and giving consumers a "fair deal". * * The document is expected to endorse recommendations on tougher capital and liquidity requirements for banks, put forward earlier this year by Financial Services Authority (FSA) chairman Lord Turner. * * It will also set out a range of options for curbing excessive lending - such as imposing tougher capital ratios for banks during boom times, and a "tax on size" to prevent balance sheets ballooning out of control. * * A new committee chaired by the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King - comprising staff from the Bank and the FSA - is also likely to be proposed to oversee wider financial stability. * * Mr King has called for more powers to discharge the Bank's responsibility for ensuring financial stability, although the FSA may also be in line for a boosted role. * * The Governor also raised speculation over a clash with Mr Darling recently by warning that banks must not be allowed to become "too big to fail". * * The White Paper will make clear that the Tripartite system set up by Gordon Brown - with duties shared between the Bank, FSA and Treasury - is to remain largely unchanged - despite criticisms over its handling of the crisis. * * It will also avoid the controversial issue of "capping" bonuses for bankers. * * Alongside proposing health warnings, financial institutions could be asked to help fund programmes to make consumers more "financially literate". * * Pilot schemes in the North aimed at giving bank customers better access to independent financial advice are also likely to be declared a success and expanded. * * Ministers will also up the pressure on banks to deal with a backlog of around a million complaints about overdraft charges. * -- regards ನರೇನ್ ಬಾಳಿಗಾ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
