The Aspirational Vision:
The U.S. financial services marketplace can actively contribute to improving people’s lives, and deliver sustainable value to all consumers and providers.

Today in our country, millions of people are struggling. The financial crisis has increased pressure on income and savings, while financial products and services have become less accessible and less affordable. Many households lack sufficient access to quality, affordable financial services to successfully manage their money in the short-term and to build savings and assets over the longer-term. More than 60 million consumers are currently not well served by the U.S. financial services industry. Access to fair and responsible credit is a serious challenge. Thus, the sizeable gap that exists between consumer demand and the market portfolio of relevant products and services creates a significant opportunity to generate new business.

The financial crisis has also dramatically changed the regulatory environment for the financial services industry, and new regulations will play a significant and valuable role in re-shaping the landscape for providers and consumers. But, regulation is only one piece of the equation. Regulation, alone, will not shape the future of financial services. Indeed, in some cases, the new regulations may have the unintended consequence of further limiting access. New regulations will define what the industry must do to keep consumers safe.

An important opportunity exists for the financial services marketplace to take a further step in creating guiding principles and best practices to define what the industry can do to create an aspirational vision for the future in which financial services are safe and actively contribute to improving people’s lives.

We invite you to explore each of the four Compass Principles. Also, we encourage you to participate in the discussion by leaving comments, joining our LinkedIn discussion, or contacting us directly.

Click here to download the Compass Principles white paper.