Stashing cash is nuts – just ask Savvy the squirrel
A new campaign fronted by Savvy the squirrel will spread a nationwide message encouraging people to invest in stocks and shares rather than just stashing cash, says James Ashton
ROLL up, roll up: this is the week when efforts to get Britain investing again start in earnest. An industry-funded marketing campaign, expected to be fronted by a squirrel called Savvy, is due to be unveiled at the London Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Then the real work begins, spreading nationwide a message encouraging people to talk about their investments and, for those that haven’t dared go further than simply stashing cash, to take the initial plunge. It should also give those that divert disposable income into cryptocurrency or scratchcards pause for thought.
With the lowest level of retail investment of any G7 country, what’s needed is a cultural shift that won’t happen overnight. That’s why the intention is for Savvy to be on our screens for several years to come.
The campaign is coordinated by the Investment Association and aims to increase awareness of the importance of investing to people’s future financial wellbeing and the value of backing the economy we live in. Investing in the shares of UK-based companies creates a virtuous circle of better valuations, domestic economic growth, financial understanding and higher standards of living.
Although this initiative stops short of enticing consumers to buy British shares, that is clearly the desire of the Chancellor, whose Leeds Reforms got the ball rolling last July towards this week’s campaign reveal. Further support comes in the shape of “Invest in Britain” hubs that are in the works from several of the major investment platforms including Barclays.
The prize is a large one. Not so long ago, the New Financial think tank estimated that an additional £740bn could flow into the UK economy if households invested a quarter of their financial assets in shares and funds, up from 15 per cent. It’s a reminder that not every capital market reform needs legislation to take effect.
Fresh attitude to risk
But it does need a fresh attitude to risk, without which there is no reward. The Investment Association’s recent review of investment risk warnings recommends contextualised and balanced risk messages, not blanket “capital at risk” tags, which the Financial Conduct Authority has already concluded are often ineffective. In the interests of balance, I wonder when contextualised warnings will be placed on cash?
As the government pointed out last summer, stocks and shares have performed significantly better than cash savings accounts in recent decades. Yet according to some industry estimates, more than 29m adults across the UK have cash sitting in a low-interest rate account offering around one per cent – while the average return for stocks and shares over the last 10 years has been around nine per cent. As an aside, UK smaller companies have substantially outperformed their larger peers over the last seven decades, according to Deutsche Numis data.
One way of encouraging UK savers to become UK investors is to highlight the rich variety of stocks they can choose from. And that means straying outside the FTSE 100. The vast majority of companies trading their shares in London are defined as small; more than half have a market capitalisation of less than £100m. All life is here: fintech, biotech, defence, media and more – innovating, hiring, exporting and growing.
These small companies already have great expertise in attracting, retaining and communicating with private investors. Some 24 per cent of the equity in the growth market AIM, where companies tend to be smaller than the main market, is held by private investors including directors – more than twice the London market average.
These companies are also well spread geographically and can therefore be at the vanguard of connecting savers with tangible investment opportunities in their own communities. The only English county that does not host the headquarters of a smaller listed company is Herefordshire.
The only English county that does not host the headquarters of a smaller listed company is Herefordshire
We can still go further to channel capital into these companies. The debate rages over whether to mandate UK pensions to invest at home. Reforming the ISA regime as a UK relief for UK investors in UK companies would make it eminently simple to understand.
Take a look across the Channel at France, whose investment scheme for retail investors, PEA, focuses on Europe-listed shares or funds. It even has a version dedicated to small and midcap companies, PEA-PME.
Even when we get the foundations right, change will be gradual. One famous marketing campaign, “Own your share of American business”, ran for 15 years from 1954 to win over doubtful US investors in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. By the mid-1960s, share owners as a percentage of the population had more than doubled to over 10 per cent.
With a collective effort, we can only hope that this week marks the beginning of a similar investment journey.
James Ashton is Chief Executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance