Based on flavour symmetries only, there are two ways to give rise to an effective description of flavour physics in the quark sector close to the CKM picture: one is based on U(3)_q x U(3)_u x U(3)_d, and the other on U(2)_q x U(2)_u x U(2)_d (or equivalent symmetries). In this context we analyze the current status of flavour physics measurements and we compare their impact, in the specific case of supersymmetry, with the direct searches of new particles at the LHC, present or foreseen.