Tony Stenning is chairman at The Investing and Savings Alliance, or TISA, who shares his broad-ranging views and sharp ideas around Building Better Financial Services with Sam Shaw in this latest interview.

A 40 min watch.

TISA is focused on three core policy initiatives to help improve financial wellbeing and provide a better financial future for consumers: strategic; technical; and digital.

Tony refers to the breadth of membership across the alliance as bringing together organisations from the moment “a pound leaves your pocket to the moment one arrives back into your pocket”.

Aiming to help members and consumers interpret regulation and respond to changes in it, he’s also keen to promote the Alliance’s newer focus of digital. That includes not just digital solutions to help improve consumer outcomes but help members solve data problems and reduce costs.

One key constituent to build better financial services is about “continuous optimisation” of the digitisation – he likens it to the much-maligned Amazon model of development.

“[The pandemic has led to] a greater and rapid acceleration of individuals wanting to engage with digital financial services. But we’ve managed to engage because people were at home and had more time. How do you ensure that you continue to keep refreshing, engaging at scale and in the most efficient way, with new services you want to provide? You have to make sure you don’t turn them off again.”

The Amazon model would see firms running “various iterations of their service at the same time”.

As he points out, “They might fail frequently, but when they succeed, they do big.”

Tony describes the work being done on TURN – Tisa Universal Reporting Network, which incorporates blockchain, digital ID, and automation to reduce levels of manual processing, and highlights the need for more personalisation.

In terms of tackling “The T word” – trust – He believes that open, honest and transparent communication will help.

“What tends to turn people off is the inconsistent delivery of communication and service.”

In such extraordinary financial markets, with prolonged low interest rates, financial performance neds to be assessed against a more ‘qualitative’ lens. Tony says companies need to go back to basics, such as ‘do my customers understand the products and services and are they making the best use of them?’

Thinking too many consumers have too big a ‘cash prop’, Tony also sets down a challenge to the sector to improve their broad-brush approach of communication.

“Not all customers are the same and we can’t treat them as such.”

We talk about managing expectations and aiming to deliver better outcomes for consumers and customers, and discuss is the importance of tangibility of finances in order for people to truly engage, a point on which he feels the dial has shifted.

“It can be a real challenge for people. I think that’s why DC schemes have been called out. When we had all those DB pension schemes, did anyone know or care what was in it? No, they just knew what the outcome would be. And because they had such a long horizon, they invested in all these longer-term investments the government is now calling out under this proposed ‘Big Bang’.”

Striking that balance between tangibility, visibility, liquidity and engagement for the long term is a crucial challenge for UK financial services and those putting together investment and savings solutions. We’d encourage you to hear what Tony – on behalf of TISA – has to say. All views welcome.