M&S sold ISAs and pensions for while in the ‘90s. Richard Branson had a go. Halifax and the Pru made millionaires of quite a few estate agents when they bought them out, thinking it would be an easy way to flog mortgages and endowments. John Lewis has seen that the end is nigh for the department store so is looking for other stuff to flog to its ABC1 customer list. It didn’t take long for then others to find that actually, the stuff we do and the regulator we serve are a tad more complicated than they thought. M&S pensions are now part of Reassure. Their funds are run by HSBC. Good luck, then, to both John and Lewis.
“Global stock markets fall sharply amid fears over inflation and China slowdown”
Diesel at my local filling station now costs over £7.50 a gallon (kids etc.). Not my problem these days, but I’m sadly old enough to remember the furore in the 1970s when the price went up to 50p a gallon.