Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has suffered the indignity of being hit with the third largest ever FSA fine after it was found to have "serious failings" in its telephone sales of payment protection insurance (PPI).
In a case described by the regulator as “the most serious we have found”, A&L was hit with a PPI record £7m reprimand but received a £3m discount for settling at an early stage. Only Royal Dutch/Shell with a £17m fine for market abuse in 2004 and Citigroup, which took a £13.9m hit for breaching two of the FSA’s principles a year later, have had to shell out more. The regulator says between 2005 and 2007 A&L sold approximately 210,000 PPI policies at an average price of £1,265, but found there was a general failure by advisers to give customers details of the cost of PPI. A&L sought to f...
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