Launch of the Next Generation Vision

We’ve brought together 21 young professionals from across the financial and professional services industry to create the Next Generation Vision for the future of the industry. The team – made up of employees in their 20s and 30s working for our member companies – come from retail and wholesale banking, insurance, asset management, accountancy, law and other professional services. The vision will be presented to key figures in the industry, politicians, regulators and young industry employees at the Media Centre in Millbank Tower, marking the public launch of a long-term project to set the future direction of the industry. Here's the introductory video: 

Team members spent two weeks debating their vision with 40 leading speakers from inside and outside the industry and also attending a series of focus groups throughout the UK with consumers and owners of small businesses who rely on financial services. They developed a shared understanding of where the industry stands today and over subsequent months met several times to form a collective vision of how it should evolve over the next fifteen years.

The Next Generation Vision identifies what the sector can become and is ambitious in its goals, while practical in its scope and suggestions. It allows participants in the financial services industry to work towards something positive, not simply away from something negative, and allows the industry to have a wider role in society and the communities they serve. The ambition is “to harness the UK financial services industry and the talent within it to society’s interest, so that every individual, business and the nation as a whole can prosper.”

The delegates identified six paths through which their ideas can be put into practice:

• Moral Code - Creating a standardised code that sets a global benchmark and is monitored and enforced.
• Sustainable Value - Creating commercial value that is consistent and for the long term, while also investing in communities and supporting innovators.
• Partnership - Building strong partnerships with customers and government through greater interaction and debate.
• Transparency - Better explaining financial products and assessing the industry through regular independent audits.
• Education - Enhancing financial literacy in schools and providing surgeries to support adults.
• Global Competiveness - Creating a strong business environment and infrastructure to support the financial services industry and launch international talent academies that work in partnership with UK universities to develop the talent the sector needs.  

Our Chairman, Stuart Popham commented,
“I am extremely proud of the Next Generation Vision. It is a forward-thinking piece of work designed by future leaders of the financial services industry that identifies a path to a more sustainable future, not just for the sector, but broader society which relies on it to function efficiently. The overriding theme that emerges is that the next generation is committed to making financial services an industry that makes the whole nation proud and prosperous. Their vision will not be achieved overnight, but over time and through behavioural change, firm-by-firm initiatives and the evolution of priorities for the sector.” 

Follow the Next Generation Vision through its website, and on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.