Embark's Phil Smith calls for financial education levy

Too much focus on protecting the consumer through regulation has acted as a barrier to the simplification and education on finance, which Smith (pictured) said was key to better consumer outcomes. "There is an onus of care on large organisations to educate and simplify and to start responding to the external, rather than the internal audience," he said. "The reason I do not think we have done this so far is we get tied up in governance, risk management and focusing on what we cannot say, caveating things to protect ourselves that we do not step into the space which actually makes this...