The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has announced an independent governance review, following accusations from the CII that there had been “serious and significant governance failures” by the PFS Board.
Conducted by Integrity Governance, the PFS said the review will be “an objective, independent assessment”, covering the PFS CEO’s role, the PFS Board’s operations and structure and advice provided to the Board by both the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) governance team and other relevant CII advisors. It will also look at the PFS Board decisions taken as a result of this advice. Finally, the review will set out recommendations for how PFS governance structure and operations can be further strengthened going forward.
A report will be produced by the end of April 2023.
Commenting on the review, PFS interim CEO, Don MacIntyre, said “Given the current challenges between the PFS and CII, the board believed it important to instigate such a review and I can now confirm this is underway. This process along with ongoing dialogue with the CII are important next steps in the safeguarding the PFS’ long-term future. It is vital that the PFS has the strongest possible governance structures to ensure we, the executive, and the Board, are making key decisions and undertaking actions always in members’ best interests on the basis of the best advice. I am firmly of the view that this will be achieved by a thorough, impartial review-process led by the expert, experienced and highly skilled professionals at Integrity Governance who can provide high-quality advice free from history or bias.”
The review follows a more recent change to the governance initiated by the CII, following its decision to appoint three new Institute Directors to the PFS Board in December late last year.
The PFS Board will be presented with Integrity Governance’s findings and recommendations by the end of April. Following the completion of the review, the Board will communicate with the membership on the next steps. Further to this, Mr MacIntyre said “I appreciate that PFS members have concerns about the future of their organisation, following the turbulence of recent months. I am confident that the findings and suggestions of this review will help allay those concerns and allow me to build a leadership structure that is fit for modern membership body.”
The review also comes following an extensive consultation of PFS members, conducted in January of this year. These findings were reviewed by the PFS Board and presented to the CII Board. The PFS Board is awaiting the CII Board’s response to the consultation and the governance review, with the final phase of this work to be presented to both boards in April.
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