A Santander spokesperson said the bank’s return to advising sees it “committed to providing high quality face-to-face investment advice to customers”.
“We completely overhauled our branch-based investment advice service, and through our current service of 225 financial planning managers we are confident in our ability to offer investment advice and deliver positive outcomes.”
A spokesperson for UK Finance, the industry trade body that includes the British Bankers Association, said banks “want to help customers as they plan their financial futures by providing a high quality professional service”.
The PFS’s Keith Richards argues that advisers, once in banks’ shoes, should support genuine efforts at change.
“Advisers have reformed to the point where we have experience of ensuring that history does not repeat itself.
“Many critics along the way doubted that advisers could ever be trusted. Now the government is even legislating the need for regulated advice.
“Banks have to be allowed the opportunity to learn from the past and evolve and re-establish public trust in what was once a highly respected sector.
“We need to act in the public’s best interest by accepting that much has changed and, just like the advice profession, banks have a key role to play in the future landscape.”
Laura Miller is news editor at FTAdviser.com
