The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today revealed a string of advice failings at six unnamed highstreet banks and building societies, uncovered during a mystery shopping exercise by the regulator. Here are the seven ways the highstreet is failing those seeking advice.
1. Poor risk profiling Some of the questions in the risk-profiling tools the FSA saw were not clearly worded, used phrases that were open to interpretation or were too complex for some customers to answer. This risked customers giving answers that resulted in their risk profile being assessed incorrectly, the FSA said. One firm's risk-profiling tool contained a complex question that assumed customers had a particular level of financial knowledge and mathematical ability, requiring customers to use percentages to calculate potential investment losses. Advisers failed to check custome...
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