Bluefin Advisory Services is braced for a potential £1.2m compensation bill from clients unhappy with their mortgage, pensions and structured products advice.

Consultancy firm Clara Capital has launched a comparison site for alternative investments, Clara Compare, as a tool to help advisers meet the FSA's widened requirements for independence post-RDR.

The FSCS will start notifying the "large number" of firms who claim they filled in the wrong tariff data used to calculate their interim levies whether they are entitled to money back.

Coventry Building Society is examining a range of capital instruments through which it could raise hundreds of millions of pounds to fund a takeover bid for Northern Rock, according to reports.

A group of eleven women - over half of whom are pensioners - have denied running an illegal pyramid scheme in the first UK case to be brought under new consumer protection regulations.

Advisers have warned their whole of market status could be threatened by the number of different ‘best quotes' on offer from financial research portals.

Brewin Dolphin said it is in talks with the FSA about the fairness of regulatory fees after its half-year pre-tax profits were slashed from a near 10% increase to a 21% decline by a £6.1m FSCS levy.

The head of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) wants to raise salaries by 50% to put his staff on a par with those at the FSA, in a bid to stem a flow of departures and attract high-calibre recruits from private practice.

The FSA is to fire a warning shot about firms which encourage savers to borrow money against their pensions.

David Barral has been appointed chief executive of Aviva's UK Life business, replacing Toby Strauss as he leaves to join Lloyds Bank.