Communicating financial reform

Financial reform is an area in which clear communication needs to be high on the agenda. Much of the recession, credit crunch, financial crisis, whatever you want to call it, has been attributed to people not understanding what they were buying or selling, or the risks they were taking in doing it. Now, we hope for sector reform that will mean these events cannot happen again, that will provide some kind of long-term security for people’s money, for people’s lives.

There are some big questions here. Who will design the new systems that keep the markets from imploding, and who will explain them to the public? Will the public have any say in how these systems function?

Some responsibility must lie with individuals, in that we could do more to understand the risks we take with our money. Then there is the need for transparency on the part of those who create new policies and regulatory bodies, as well as a requirement for the media to report on it all without over-simplifying the issues, nor clouding them in mysterious terms.

In the US, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency is being proposed, an agency that aims to ensure we understand what we are being sold. Business groups have immediately attacked the idea, and the resulting battle will be interesting, for sure. The winner may well be the group who figures out how best to put their argument across, regardless of whether they happen to be right. This is an instance in which all the above becomes relevant, when the clear communication of ideas becomes hugely important.