A broad coalition of industry figures, consumer organisations and advisers have been urging the Government to crackdown on scammers by making non-solicited phone calls related to pensions and investments illegal.
A petition calling for the ban, set up by financial adviser Darren Cooke and backed by AJ Bell, has now attracted well over 5,000 signatures.
Earlier this week the Government confirmed there “will be an announcement in a few weeks’ time” on the issue, although details of what action will be taken remain unclear.
AJ Bell says there should be an industry wide consultation on the process for banning pension cold calling. The ban introduced for the mortgage market by the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, could be used as the starting point for clamping down on nuisance calls in the retirement market.
For mortgages, rules state that firms cannot cold-call people “unless there is a pre-existing customer relationship through which the customer expects unsolicited promotions”. No such rules exist for pensions and investments at the moment.
AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby says: “We have been campaigning for pensions cold-calling to be banned for months, and it now looks as though we have a Government that is finally taking this issue seriously.
“It should be up to the appropriate regulators, in partnership with the industry, to make this ban work without damaging legitimate communications from firms. We already have a precedent in the mortgage market so it should not take much to apply similar principles to pensions, taking into account specific dynamics in the market.
“The target for this action must be unsolicited telephone calls linked to pensions. Such calls can put those on the other end of the phone – who may be elderly and vulnerable – under extreme duress and because pensions are often confusing, it can be easier for slick salesmen to pressure people into parting with their hard-earned retirement cash.”
The petition can be found here: www.petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166980