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How important is this charter?

The charter represents a major step towards the building of a more trustworthy, sustainable and customer-oriented finance sector, where sales of products are customer lead and always accompanied by proper advice.



It is much based on local commitment and dialogue at company level – why?

The global finance sector is extremely varied and differentiated, both when it comes to size of companies and regulations and practices that differ substantially across borders. Therefore, from the very beginning of this project of establishing common ground, we have been convinced that a one-size-fits-all charter that could be implemented without taking local/national/specific company-considerations into account would be impossible. Local commitment and dialogues at company-level is an absolute necessity.



Some critics claim that a self-regulatory system will not be efficient – what do you think?

I think they are wrong. I expect that transparent, responsible selling and advice will be a much bigger competitive parameter than is the case today in the finance sector. The moment the framework gets more institutionalized and customers will be able to see which institutions comply with good sales practices, and which do not, things will happen fast. I think that we have started a very strong and irreversible movement to the benefit of both customers, employees and the companies themselves.



Why do you not point to actual legislation and regulation on these matters?

We strongly support regulation on these matters, and we believe, that regulation has to be used to gain ground. We see regulation as an absolute necessary complement to our approach in the charter. The focus of the work with the charter has been the actual sales practices in the financial companies – and especially how these could be improved by enhanced dialogue between employees and management.



Should the charter be regarded as a way to avoid regulation?

Not at all. UNI Finance points to regulation in numerous ways, also surrounding overall lending and sales practices. However, we believe that if we are to effectively change sales practices and bring more sustainability into the financial sector, regulation has its limits. If there is no commitment to an end goal, rules and regulations tend to be circumvented. In that sense, we believe that pushing a system based on constructive dialogue and joint ownership will bring changes a lot faster to the sector than a sole regulatory approach.



Is the charter ambitious enough?

Given that only very few financial companies in the world today have practices, that follow all the principles and guidelines put down in the charter, I certainly think that we have set the bar sufficiently high to be called ambitious – yet still realistic.