Consumer Panel announces new appointments

The Financial Services Consumer Panel has announced two new appointments to take effect in April 2011, and the retirement of one of its long-standing members. This is in addition to the four new members who joined the Panel in January and takes the Consumer Panel to fifteen members.

Teresa Fritz and Pamela Meadows will join the Panel with effect from 1st April 2011.

Tony Hetherington will be retiring from the Consumer Panel at the end of March 2011 having reached the end of his term. He has served on the Panel for six years.
Adam Phillips, Chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel said:

"We welcome the new members to the Panel in April, taking the Panel to its largest size for some years.

With the changes to the way financial services will be regulated in the future the work of the Panel in helping to maintain consumer protection is more vital than ever.

The new members will extend the Panel's experience and knowledge of the financial services sector.

Tony Hetherington has made a unique contribution over the years, particularly in the areas of enforcement and financial crime. We wish him well for the future."

1. Teresa Fritz - Until recently, Teresa was a Principal Researcher at the consumer organisation Which?, where she worked for 15 years researching and writing consumer reports on all areas of personal finance. She also worked on Which? campaigns such as endowment and payment protection mis-selling. In 2009 Teresa set up the Which? Money Helpline which offers money guidance to approximately 600,000 Which? subscribers in all areas of personal finance. She continued to head up the Helpline until February 2011 when she left Which? to join a new venture still working in the area of money guidance. Teresa has worked in the financial services industry for more than 35 years, with previous employers including Abbey Life, Skandia , Barclays, St James' Place and SIFA.
2. Pamela Meadows is an economist who specialises in the labour market and social policy issues. She has a particular interest in the experiences and life chances of disadvantaged groups. She is currently a visiting Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and a Director of Synergy Research and Consulting. Previously, she was Director of the Policy Studies Institute, and before that spent nearly twenty years as a government economist in both the Home Office and the Department of Employment, where she was Chief Economist and Head of Economics, Research and Evaluation.
3. Retiring member Tony Hetherington's biography can be found on the our website[1]
4. The Consumer Panel is a statutory body under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and was initially established by the Financial Services Authority in December 1998. The Panel advises the FSA Board on the interests and concerns of consumers and reports on the FSA's performance in meeting its objectives.
5. Panel members are appointed to serve a maximum of two terms of three years.
6. The emphasis of the Panel's work is on activities that are regulated by the FSA, although it may also look at the impact on consumers of activities outside but related to the FSA's remit. More information about the Panel's work is available on our website[2].
7. From the 1st April 2011 there will be fifteen members of the Panel as listed below. Panel members are appointed for a three year term which can be renewed once (For further information on individual members, see our website[2]