On 16 July 2018, the FCA published a speech by Christopher Wollard (Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, FCA), Intergenerational challenges: what Mike and the Mechanics can teach us about pensions.

Highlights in the speech include:

• demographic shifts and economic trends over the last 30 or so years have remade the social contract across the generations – from the difficulties younger people face getting on the housing ladder, to the need for older people to pay for care for longer;
• the question of how to deal with such challenges is not for the regulator to lead, but rather for democratically elected governments. But we do have a role to play;
• with a broad, complicated remit and finite resources, the FCA has targeted its interventions to yield the best results; and
• the aim that unifies the FCA’s pensions work, whether it’s the Asset Management Market Study, Retirement Outcomes Review or Platforms Market Study, is to ensure consumers have the best outcomes possible in retirement.

Mr Woolard also mentions that later this year the FCA is going to publish a paper on intergenerational issues, which will:

• examine the challenges mentioned above;
• analyse how the financial services market may respond to those issues; and
• identify any barriers which are preventing the market from innovating and meeting changing consumer demand.