Don MacIntyre, interim chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, has praised the “passion and strength of feeling” of PFS members following the conclusion today of its member consultation on its dispute with parent body the CII.
PFS members were asked for their views on the CII’s decision just before Christmas to appoint three new institute directors to the PFS board.
The CII announced on 21 December that it planned to appoint a majority of PFS board members to gain control of the board due to its governance concerns about the PFS. The decision led to a major dispute between the PFS and its parent body.
The PFS was given 30 days until 19 January to consult with members but that deadline was extended until today, Friday 27 January. That consultation period has just ended with an estimated 4,000 PFS individual members providing feedback.
In a statement today Mr MacIntyre said: “I would like to thank the thousands of PFS members who have contributed to this gathering of views, including those who participated in our webinars, completed the survey or wrote to me directly.”
He said almost 2,000 PFS members had written to him to share their concerns about the CII’s move, demonstrating that feelings were running high. Meanwhile around 800 signed up for live webinars last week to discuss the row.
Approximately 10% of PFS members and 15% of PFS corporate members, from a total membership of 40,000, responded to the survey.
Mr Macintyre said: “It is encouraging to see the passion and strength of feeling PFS members have for their representative body. It is clear that there are strongly held views and significant concerns arising from the CII’s action, many of which I share.”
He said he will take the next week to analyse and consider the feedback received, before relaying the views of the PFS membership to both the PFS and CII boards.
He said: “It is my top priority to bring stability back to the PFS following a period of significant turbulence imposed upon us.”
Last week he called on the CII to halt the ‘impasse’ between the two organisations and negotiate over CII plans to take control of the PFS board.
Reinforcing what he said in last week’s live online PFS webinars, Mr MacIntyre added today: “This continued impasse is doing damage to both the CII and PFS.
“Both our members rightly demand and expect us to do better than this. We must listen to what they say and find a way to move forward based on what is in the best interests of both our organisations, while being transparent with our memberships.”
