Investment Changes and Women's Financial Rights

Sweeping changes to the way investments are recommended across the UK will start in April. This week the Financial Conduct Authority set out its plans. The regulator hopes they will encourage more people to invest their savings rather than keep them in cash. From April it will bring in what it calls 'targeted support'. That would allow firms to suggest how customers in different groups should manage their money. The FCA has also issued new guidance on how investments can be marketed and what warnings customers are given. Paul Lewis speaks to its Deputy Chief Executive Sarah Pritchard.

Just 50 years ago, women couldn’t apply for loan or get a mortgage without a man. That came to an end thanks to the Sex Discrimination Act which came into force in December 1975. We'll hear from Kath and Sue who remember what it was like at that time.

And a new scheme aimed at bringing down energy debt targets people who are moving home. We'll speak to Ofgem, the energy regulator, about that.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Eimear Devlin
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson

(First broadcast at 12pm Saturday 13th December 2025)