Lord Christopher
Main Page: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Sassoon
I wish I could say “in due course” in another way. However, I can only reconfirm my previous Answer.
Lord Christopher
My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of a small investment management company that markets ISAs. Does the Minister agree that there is another side to the growth coin—the risk to potential investors? The number of people who invest today without really understanding what they are doing is extremely worrying. We have seen plenty of examples of irresponsible marketing and I hope that the Minister will take into account the views of the FSA on risk, which should be made clear to potential investors.
Lord Sassoon
I am grateful to the noble Lord for pointing this out. When ISAs were introduced in 1999, they were intended to be for mainstream investment products so that they would be well regulated and investors would be protected from too much risk as well as having easy access. I take the noble Lord’s point.