Treasury
The big cheese
The Treasury implements government financial and economic policy. It directs the regulatory regime for investors in the UK through the FCA.
HM Treasury is subject to scrutiny by the Treasury Committee, one of the House of Commons' select committees.
The work of the Treasury is dominated by the need to raise taxes and control government expenditure within the confines of the interests of their political masters. Outcomes are affected by the following:
- Taxes on the profits of the financial services industry contribute 15% of government income.
- In the context of a fixed-sum-game, reducing costs to investors reduces income to the industry serving them and reduces tax to the government.
- Few voters understand or care about the minutiae of the savings environment.
- Wealthy individual donors dominate party funding.
- Many treasury staff, particularly at the top, are highly skilled with career opportunities at much higher salaries within the industry.
- Treasury staff are human beings with human failings, like the rest of us.
Come to your own conclusions about how this affects the outcome in any battle of wills between the Treasury and private investors.