Regulation

Insurers have warned of a fresh hike in premiums for millions of customers after the regulator hit the financial services industry with an inflation-busting 15.6% rise in annual fees.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) looks set to hold its ground on plans to include the names of businesses involved when it starts publishing final decisions.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) spent nearly £400m on management expenses in the 2010/11 year as it took in nearly £1bn in levies and paid out over £535m in compensation.

Advisers have given the Treasury's simple products initiative a tentative thumbs up while recognising that the financial services industry is overly complicated.

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) redress totals have reached a new peak after payments rocketed by more than £100m in just one month.

Investors cannot be counted on to make rational choices so regulators need to "step into their footprints" and limit or ban the sale of potentially harmful products, the head of the UK's new consumer protection watchdog said.

Protection complaints continued to rise during the year and have already breached last year's totals in some product areas.

The ten worst offending payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling firms could face costs of over £55m to enable regulators to deal with the problem.

An industry expert has called for greater engagement by the protection industry to prevent regulation of payment protection insurance (PPI) hurting the protection market.

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) has launched a sanctions checking facility to help members comply with the Terrorism Act and the FSA financial crime requirements.