Mutuals are focusing on direct sales route.

Financial Adviser, May, 2006

MUTUAL chiefs are spending less time and effort trying to push their products through financial intermediaries, according to a report.

A survey of building societies' chief executives released at the BSA annual conference on Thursday showed only 18 per cent saw their business developing through the intermediary route, compared to 32 per cent last year.

The number of building societies looking to develop their direct sales was down slightly to 41 per cent, whereas the amount looking to keep their current ratio between direct and intermediary sales rose to 41 per cent from 25 per cent.

The trend away from sales through intermediaries has taken place despite regulation strengthening the hand of IFAs, according to some respondents.

An...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.