Gold Standard Awards announces 2007 financial services winners

A dozen financial services companies were presented with a Gold Standard Award at a ceremony at the House of Commons yesterday afternoon.

The Awards, which are run by Incisive Media, seek to go further than any other set of financial services awards by assessing companies’ performance across the five elements of trust, fair value, financial strength, service and their capability to conduct business well. Such is the high standard demanded of entrants that only 48 Gold Standards have been awarded in the Awards’ five-year history.

Five companies were awarded a gold standard for Fund Management – Blackrock, F&C Asset Management, Fidelity International, Gartmore Investment Management and JPMorgan Asset Management – while just three companies flew the flag for Independent Financial Advice – Informed Choice, Investment Quorum and Torquil Clark.

In a time of great change in the Pensions industry, there were only two winners – Scottish Widows for Individual Pensions and Friends Provident for Group Pensions. It was a good day for Friends Provident, who also took a Gold Standard for Protection, while Standard Life Healthcare was the sole winner in the Healthcare category.

“The importance of assessing product providers across the wide range of elements considered by the Gold Standard Awards cannot be overstated as the Government and regulatory bodies move towards a greater sense of partnership between financial services groups and consumers,” said Julian Marr, editorial director of Incisive Media’s Investment Division and chairman of the 19-strong judging panel.

“In this brave new world, financial services companies will no longer be able to hide behind walls of compliance but will have to demonstrate commitment to the sector by helping to educate and engender trust by treating customer’s fairly. A Gold Standard Award demonstrates the winner commands trust, offers fair value for its products, is financially sound and delivers the highest level of service.”