TISA presses industry to face the facts – ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’
“There is an understandable reluctance amongst competitors to share sensitive commercial data, but the result is a lack of comprehensive and reliable market information” Tony Vine Lott, Director General of TISA – Tax Incentivised Savings Association – commented today at the Association’s national conference at The Plaisterers’ Hall in the City of London.
Since the summer TISA has been in talks with Cimetric to see how it might provide its members and other industry participants with a secure, online benchmarking service – in the first instance focusing on ISAs. ISAs represent a growing proportion of the UK retail savings landscape, yet little is known about the dynamics of the industry as a whole. The objective is to feed back to managers meaningful, detailed and authoritative data on their business and operational performance relative to other industry participants, covering aspects such as marketing costs, customer retention rates, average amounts invested by product type, distribution channel effectiveness and error rates, to name a few.
Tony Vine-Lott continued; “We need to compile this data in a secure way so it can then be collated, anonymised and released back to the people who want to access it. This means not only that managers will be much better placed to determine the effectiveness of their businesses, it will also much enhance the industry’s ability to present its case.
“The very people who need a clear understanding of the current state of play and emerging trends – that is policymakers and their advisers – are often left with at best an ambiguous, at worst a wholly flawed impression. And this is all because of the fragmented and limited way in which the industry publishes its data. It’s time we improved the situation.”
David Lee, a director of Cimetric Limited and formerly a founding director of market leading product research firm Defaqto said: “The current ‘Information Gap’ leaves ISA managers in a commercial vacuum, unable to identify their position in a crowded and increasingly competitive market. They can’t know if their costs are in line with their peers, how fast they are growing relative to their competitors, the productivity of their systems and processes, service quality and profitability. These are not only measures of current performance but are leading indicators of future performance.
“TISA immediately understood the potential value of this service to its members and the market as a whole. Certainly everyone we have spoken to is keen on it. This isn’t about collecting data in insurance, banking or investment silos. With increasing overlap in product provision and distribution, providers need meaningful cross-industry information if they are to measure and improve their effectiveness.”
Ends
Issued on behalf of TISA by Cauldron Consulting
For further information, please contact:Tony Vine-Lott, Director General, TISA – Tel: 01372 374728, Mobile: 07790 006108Email: tony.vine-lott@tisa.uk.com
Steve Radford, Tel: 020 3178 7238, email: steve.radford@cauldron-consulting.com
Notes for editors
The Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA)
TISA is the premier trade association in the UK retail savings and investment industry. By engaging with member firms, government, political parties, regulators and consumer groups TISA’s ultimate goal is always to further consumers’ best interests. It seeks to improve the range, features and quality of savings and investment schemes available whilst at the same time encouraging more people to save for their financial security and peace of mind.
Uniquely, TISA is able to articulate the opinions of the whole savings and investments marketplace through its membership comprising over 120 member firms involved in the supply or distribution of products to the sector and its consumer interest. TISA’s remit extends across the broad spectrum of government sponsored savings and investment vehicles including:
• Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)
• Child Trust Funds (CTFs)
• Savings Gateway
• Personal Pensions
• Investment Bonds
• Employer based pension schemes
• Wraps and platforms
• Other consumer-centric savings schemes and initiatives.
HM Government uses TISA’s market knowledge and ability to represent the views of both the savings and investments industry and consumers to help it to formulate its policy in this area. Recent TISA successes include improvements to the ISA and the regime in which ISAs operate and simplification of the CTF.
Cimetric Limited
Cimetric is a provider of confidential business intelligence services to the financial services industry. They deliver detailed and authoritative information and assist their clients to enhance their operational and strategic business performance.
David Lee is a director of Cimetric Limited. He is ACII qualified and has 30 years experience in the financial services industry. He was previously a founding director of market leading product research firm Defaqto and was responsible for the design and development of Defaqto’s Aequos database.
Roger Colletta is a director of Cimetric Limited. His background is in systems and services providers to the financial services industry. He has held business development and commercial director roles in a range of companies including Fujitsu Services plc, Patsystems plc and Voca (formerly BACS). Prior to joining Cimetric, Roger was managing director of ComPeer Limited, a provider of benchmarking services to the wealth management sector.
For more information, please contact either david.lee@cimetric.co.uk or roger.colletta@cimetric.co.uk or visit www.cimetric.co.uk