Need for stronger regulation

I spoke to a professor in a UK university who was previously an actuary working in the insurance industry. He told me about the background of the regulatory environment and the mis-selling over the past decades.

For many years, the authority in the UK regulated the sales process, disclosure of information and expected financial advisers to observe  ethics and professionalism. It did not work. Many agents sold bad products to their customers to earn high commisison. The regulator imposed heavy fines on the financial institutions  but it still did not solve the problem.

The regulator has finally decided to ban the payment of commission to agents. This will take place in the near future.

Singapore followed the UK approach in regulation. But the authority in Singapore did not impose the heavy fines on the institutions for mis-selling. The situation is quite bad in Singapore and many consumers are offered bad products that gave them a poor return on their savings. What will Singapore do, now that they role model (UK) has found their approach to be a failure?

Tan Kin Lian