Money Advice boss quits after row over pay

Wednesday 4th July 2012

The Money Advice Service (MAS) has announced the resignation of its chief executive Tony Hobman.

The controversial MAS has been subject to ferocious criticism in recent weeks by a sub-committee of the Treasury Select Committee.

Money-saving guru Martin Lewis told the sub-committee that the MAS was ‘crap’, while FSA chairman Lord Adair Turner, in his evidence, admitted that the £350,000 salary paid to Hobman was too much.

The sub-committee’s chairman, Labour MP George Mudie, weighed in, accusing the MAS of behaving like a playground bully trying to justify its £87m budget.

The MAS, which is funded by the financial services industry, has also come under fire for spending about £20m of its budget on advertising, including a TV campaign.

In an official statement announcing Hobman’s resignation, he said: “I have enjoyed my time here and am proud of the turnaround of the organisation and the imminent upgrade to the service. It has a crucial role to play in the financial wellbeing of the country and I am pleased to have been part of it.

“I will leave with mixed feelings but am reassured in the knowledge that the service employs dedicated people working very energetically and creatively to help the millions of people who fall into the advice gap every day.”
  
MAS chairman Gerard Lemos said: “I am very grateful for all that Tony has done over the past two years. He has brought the organisation through a challenging transformation period and overseen the initial and forthcoming upgrade to the service which sets us on a path to reach over 11 million people annually in five years’ time. We wish him well for the future.”

However, the board will conduct an immediate review of the future role and remuneration of the chief executive and intends to identify a successor to Hobman by the autumn. Hobman will continue working during his six-month notice period.

Hobman was appointed as chief executive of the Consumer Financial Education Body in April 2010 which became the MAS, which is funded by a mandatory levy on firms that are regulated by the FSA.