Very bad things
Regular readers will remember that I wrote a list of Very Bad Things in 2022.
I'm not going to do one for 2023 as the only certainty about predictions is that you'll be right some of the time and wrong the rest of the time, and it's just sheer dumb luck if you're right.
But one thing that will remain is financial vulnerability - and this needs to be addressed. Tax is not being made digital fast enough to help some; but while everyone shifts to digital, there are millions of people being left behind.
After my op-ed, a reader (Ms D) said: "Please remind people that some of us still use 'archaic' means of communication."
Bank branches are still being closed at a time when many people - particularly the elderly - prefer to go in and talk with someone.
Heck, even I booked an in-person meeting with a bank staffer (a very excellent one, too, Vanessa Lineker, senior personal banker at Barclays in Wallington).
In fact, she's busted quite a few frauds and protected her clients after having meetings with them and sensing something was not quite right. You can't get that from AI.
And in all this rush to rip up old regulations, internal spatting, ploughing ahead with digitisation while forgetting vulnerabilities, the financial services industry risks forgetting the reason it exists.
No, not to make money from the end user.
To help the end user. This is what the vast majority of financial advisers do every day.
To help educate, inform, guide and advice Britons through whatever 2023 might bring, so they can afford to pay their heating bills and their insurance premiums.
To help them put money aside for the future, tax-effectively, so that future generations can get onto that housing ladder or get through university.
This task is not finished. It never finishes. You simply pass the flaming torch from one to the next, driving forward to reach those in need.
So this is not an op-ed predicting what might happen in 2023.
It's a challenge.
