The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined insurance intermediary HomeServe Membership Limited (HML) £30.6m for breaching a series of principles including incentivising sales over quality .
West Midlands-based HML, which advises on home emergency and repairs insurance cover, was found to have breached Principles 3, 6 and 7 between 2005 and 2011. HML's board was found to have failed to keep adequate oversight and to detect widespread misselling, which later led to the firm suspending all its telephone sales. The FCA said the firm had effectively created a "culture that placed more importance on generating profits". There was also a bias within the remuneration structure for the complaint handling teams, which, the FCA found, incentivised staff to close as many complain...
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