PR agencies in rush to increase financial services offering

Most senior agency people I’ve spoken to recently seem to tell me about their desire to move into, or increase their offering, in financial services PR. Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised, as yields in this sector are traditionally higher than the likes of consumer or tech PR (although lower than financial PR or healthcare.)  As the UK –hopefully- continues to grow out of recession, some of the large PR brands are looking to increase their market share within this area.  Tough gig though I thought. Competition is fierce in this area. The likes of Lansons continue to do excellent work and the larger players all have established financial services teams. And where would you start? We've been talking about the lack of trust in financial services for (arguably) 30 years. People are angrier with the financial services sector now than ever before. It's quite a PR challenge.  Hotwire’s Brendon Craigie reckons that “When it comes to public trust in the banking sector there seems to be a general lack of engagement with the public. It is as if elements of the financial services sector occupy a parallel universe where they are aware of the challenges and problems they face from a reputation perspective, but their way of addressing issues is through lobbyists and the corridors of power. Ultimately I think there needs to be recognition from people working in financial services that there is a public debate going on out there and they have two choices; participate and try and address concerns and misconceptions, or keep their heads down knowing that the issues are not going to go away.” Lets face it. When you pay bonuses of £millions, the money that is spent on communications is pretty much small change. But what seems to be happening is that financial services companies are not only prioritising the Financial Mail and the FT, but also recognising the need for engagement and communication with the public, presumably with the aim of gradually building trust in the sector. Personally, I’d suggest paying themselves a bit less might also be a good start, but what do I know...