Responding to the Treasury and Financial Services Authority's (FSA) announcement on a financial capability action plan, Victoria Nye, Director of Training and Education at Investment Management Association (IMA) said:

"The Government and FSA have shown leadership in taking this forward. The action plan will make it easier for people to access help and advice on a number of financial matters and this is key. We welcome the Government's continued emphasis to help educate people on their finances and IMA will continue to provide input on investment for a range of programmes and initiatives.

The real test now is whether the combination of initiatives can genuinely encourage people to be more competent and more pro-active in managing their money.  This means not only on a daily basis, but also over their life time."

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Notes to Editors:

1. The IMA is the trade body for the UK's £3,100 billion asset management industry. The money its members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs. Its role is to represent the industry and promote high standards.
2. IMA produces a range of literature to help investors understand more about saving and investing in unit trusts and OEICs.

IMA can provide investment content for educational materials that will be produced on Child Trust Funds as part of the new My Money programme and training for those working on the Money Guidance. 

IMA's online fact sheets contain links to other IMA web pages and external websites.  To access these fact sheets online, please click on: www.investmentuk.org/investors/default.asp

For further information, please contact:
Noreen Shah, Press Officer, IMA, 020 7831 0898

Out of hours:
Mona Patel, Head of Communications, IMA, 07834 089 332