Category Archives: corporate governance

Hose down RBS and Coutts before you put them on the forecourt.

Posted on March 27, 2012 by

There is a Coutts cash point in my high street – Eton High Street. It charges other bank’s customers for the privilege of using it. You can do that if you have the banking cachet that Coutts believes it has. Most … Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, Change, corporate governance, customer service, Fred Goodwin, Management, RBS, Retail Distribution Review | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What have the Australians done for us – not much!

Posted on March 10, 2012 by

I’ve been asked to talk to some pension people later this month on Supertrusts and what we can learn from the Australian Superannuation System. I have attended a number of lectures on this subject over the past few years, mainly … Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, corporate governance, dc pensions, defined aspiration | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Bill Whitehead’s drawers

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

I wrote last week about why we need a national register of people’s pension pots (not a clearing house or a system of enforced transfers). Re-reading the post, I can see many people will be asking “what is the issue at … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, auto-enrolment, corporate governance | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Search “my pensions”!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by

Steve Webb is right in reckoning we would value our personal pension saving more if it were in one big pot. He is right that this would make the job of converting pension saving into an income stream for life easier. … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, corporate governance, dc pensions, defined aspiration, FSA, happiness | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Whatever happened to “stakeholder economics”?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by

When Blair swept to power in 1997, Will Hutton‘s vision of a stakeholder economy was central to New Labour‘s vision. While the idealism of those years is now derided, I prefer it to the negativity of today’s commentary. Listening to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, corporate governance, Henry Tapper blog, Jersey, pension playpen, pensions, Popcorn Pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The language that we use

Posted on February 17, 2012 by

This from the normally readable Booznews This year’s fact-based shopper marketing study, prepared in partnership with Shopper Sciences and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, reveals, among other findings, that leading CPG manufacturers and retailers are increasingly adopting a solutions-based approach to amplify … Continue reading →

Posted in corporate governance, Henry Tapper blog, Management | Leave a comment

Define your aspiration.

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

Last week, the brotherhood  of DB and DC pensions got a little sister when Steve Webb introduced the prospect of DA to the family. There is nothing new about the search for a third way, indeed it is the pensions equivalent of the … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, EU Solvency II, NEST | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Do we need guarantees on the pensions we get? Pension Play Pen lunch – Feb 6th

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

There was a peculiar diversity of participants in this month’s pension lunch which led to an extraordinary debate and the closest of votes. Our lunch group split into three groups 1. Those who followed a broadly paternalistic line (Stav, Bill,Mike … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, Bankers, cheltenham festival, corporate governance, pension playpen, Pension Rocks III, pensions, Retirement, social media, The Racket of the Lambs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Selling NEST and auto-enrolment to the pension weary

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

The issue of fatigue is high on my agenda this morning - especially Regulatory Fatigue. Yesterday the DWP published a host of documents that can be accessed through this link http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2011/workplace-pension-reform-2011.shtml It dots the “i”s and crosses the “t’s” on a … Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, NEST, pensions, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Don’t blame Stephen Hester – we made his rules.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

If anything is to be learned from current events, it needs to be learned about how the rules are established (not whether they are applied). Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, Church of England, corporate governance, dc pensions, Fred Goodwin, pension playpen, pensions | 4 Comments