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Financial cold calls banned to clamp down on fraud

Journalist: Jane Matthews, FTAdviser

ended 04. May 2023

Hi Newspagers, 

You may have seen the news that the government is clamping down on cold calls for all financial products to help tackle fraud. 

It will include cold calls about insurance and crypto-related schemes as these are the most common scams. 

Interested to hear your thoughts on this - positive news? Has cold calling ever been part of your business model in terms of lead generation? 

On a tight deadline for this one, if you could come back to me before 11am please. 

Many thanks, 
Jane 

 

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Ross Lacey
Director & Independent Financial Adviser at Fairview Financial Management
This is good news. There are still dodgy, unregulated firms out there cold-calling to entice potential clients with empty promises of guaranteed returns on wacky investments, or cheap-as-chips insurance policies that provide endless amounts of cover. This will hopefully help drive clients toward proper, regulated financial advice.
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
As one of the original sponsors of a petition calling for a ban on cold calling in 2017, I'm pleased to see that the government is now taking further steps to tackle fraud by clamping down on cold calls for all financial products, including insurance and crypto-related schemes. This is positive news for consumers, who will be better protected from the most common scams.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Whilst, in theory, this is great news, the reputation of dedicated hard-working professionals has been tarnished enough by scammers using cold-call techniques, it is simply another rule. These sorts of people don't follow the existing rules in the main, so why is this one suddenly going to be any different? There are rules governing social media posts, but a quick trawl of any social media platform will bring up dozens of ads and posts that don't comply. We are not suffering from a lack of rules to tackle poor and illegal practices, we are suffering from a lack of robust enforcement of those rules.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
True financial "cold calls" being banned is a good thing. Only bad can come from companies being allowed to mass-call members of the general public in two ways. Firstly the impression it gives the public on the financial industry as a whole as they will be unsure which company is bonafide and which is a fraudster, secondly financial product transactions need copious amounts of discussion, explanation, documentation, and time for the receiver to absorb. Having been involved in the last 35 years in all techniques of marketing of financial products in the UK our current position of providing assistance where requested is a much more professional standpoint to take and the clients seem to love it.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
It's brilliant news and not before time. Cold calling tends to go hand in hand with high-pressure sales tactics from sausage factory outfits. Not something which has a place in financial services.
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Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner at The Orchard Practice
"This is great news. Too many people are called out of the blue and conned into parting with their money. My only reservation is that will a ban really stop those who are acting fraudulently anyway."