CEO of FCA forerunner 'could have brought down Thatcher'

Westland helicopter affair disclosed by former PIA chief

Laura Miller
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The head of the forerunner to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who led the financial sector's first widespread review into pension mis-selling, has broken her 30 year silence on a scandal that could have cost Margaret Thatcher the premiership.

Colette Bowe, now Dame, ran the Personal Investment Authority (PIA) from its launch in January 1994 until 1997, when she quit in the regulatory shake-up that followed New Labour's entry to government and led to the creation of the Financial Services Authority (FSA). She pursued a far-reaching review in 1995 that looked at more than half a million pensions mis-sold by some of the industry's biggest names, including Prudential, Legal & General and Co-operative Insurance, as well as financial advisers. She has had a glittering career at a host of regulatory bodies since, and in 2014 beca...

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