The Investment Management Association believes the Government-backed Money Advice Service budget is too large and is concerned about the lack of transparency around the organisation.

Responding to the inquiry by the Treasury Select Committee into the MAS, the IMA said this lack of transparency was leading to scepticism within the industry about whether the MAS was able to manage itself effectively and could cause goodwill to be lost with its partners.

As representative of funders of the service, the IMA said it was concerned it had not had an ‘inside track’ of the administration and expenditure of the service.

In order to rectify this negative opinion, the IMA said: “The MAS needs to work hard to improve its public reputation, through clear communications, not just to its potential customers, but also to partners, opinion formers and funders.

“It should now demonstrate it has a coherent plan, based on value for money, avoiding unnecessary duplication with sister services and retaining staff who can build meaningful relationships with partners at every level.”

However, it did say that recent meetings with MAS board member Laurie Edman had worked on rectifying the transparency problem.

The IMA also said rather than position itself as a central provider of financial education, the MAS should complement existing services and incorporate financial education into schools via its National Financial Education Strategy.

The National Financial Education Strategy is currently being developed and will work to improve financial education for young people in the UK. It is supported by firms such as Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Prudential.