Just 40% of UK adults are confident in the financial services industry, according to research carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Less than a third or respondents feel that financial services providers are honest and transparent.
Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at investment platform AJ Bell says that ‘just 6% of people have used regulated financial advice in the past year’, highlighting the advice gap in the UK at the moment.
‘The British public are still wary of the financial services industry’ says Suter.
The regulator found that 44% of retirees’ main source of income was their state pension although this is set to drop to 29% for non-retirees aged 45 and over.
Other findings by the FCA found 57% of people have no savings or savings less than £5,000 while 31% have no private pension.
SCAMS
The financial regulator found that 23% of adults have experienced an unsolicited approach about pensions in the last 12 months.
Suter says ‘The data on pension scams shows how important it is for legislation like the pension cold calling ban to be pushed through parliament to stop people being robbed of their life savings by scammers’.
The Financial Lives Survey 2017 took place between December 2016 and April 2017, with the FCA interviewing almost 13,000 consumers across the UK.
