Panel announces autumn appointments

The Financial Services Consumer Panel has today announced two new appointments. Debbie Harrison and Jeff Salway join the Panel with effect from 1 September 2012.

Adam Phillips, Consumer Panel Chair commented:
“It is my pleasure to welcome to the Panel two outstanding individuals with distinguished backgrounds.

Debbie Harrison has substantial expertise in pensions policy and will be of great value to the Panel with its work on retirement income. Jeff Salway has a wealth of experience of personal finance which will bolster our scrutiny of the new Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to regulation.

We will miss Stephen Crampton whose term on the Panel has come to an end. Since joining the Panel in September 2006 he has played an important role in shaping our EU policy work.”

1. Dr Debbie Harrison is a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School (http://www.pensions-institute.org/[1]), where she is the author of reports that focus on pension policy, regulation, and on the impact of the supply and distribution chain on the defined contribution scheme member’s outcome. She publishes regularly in leading economics journals and speaks at UK and international pensions conferences. She is a consultant to the pensions and consumer education units of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), where she is a co-author of global analytical pension system reports. She is a trustee of the Financial Inclusion Centre, a not-for-profit think tank dedicated to making financial services products accessible and appropriate for the lower paid. Debbie has been a regular contributor to the Financial Times for 25 years, working initially for the personal finance section, where she exposed mis-selling scandals and investigated consumer detriment in relation to overly-complex products, such as with profits and structured products, before concentrating on institutional pensions and asset management issues for FTfm, the FT’s Monday fund management supplement. Her particular interests are the advisory market post-RDR, auto-enrolment and DC regulation, annuities, equity release schemes, and all complex investment products, which she would like to see vetted on a pre-launch basis in relation to the provider’s target market.
2. Jeff Salway has been a financial journalist for nearly a decade, writing for both trade and consumer publications. He was Personal Finance Editor at The Scotsman for almost four years, also covering business and consumer stories for the paper before leaving in early 2012.Now freelance, Jeff continues to write and edit the personal finance pages for both The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.While at The Scotsman, Jeff was named Headlinemoney’s Regional Personal Finance Journalist of the Year three years in succession. He was also given awards by the Association of Investment Companies and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association.He has also worked for consumer finance magazine Moneywise and financial advice trade titles Financial Adviser and Money Management.Jeff, who is originally from South Wales and attended university in Cardiff, has been a journalist since 2003, having previously worked in data publishing at Thomson Financial (now ThomsonReuters).
3. 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 on the interests and concerns of consumers and reports on the FSA's performance in meeting its objectives.
4. The Panel’s membership is drawn from a broad range of backgrounds with expertise including market research, law, financial services industry, financial inclusion, European Regulation, financial regulation, consumer advice, campaigning, communications, compliance and later-life issues.
5. 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].
6. Panel members are appointed to serve a maximum of two terms of three years.