Aegon given hefty slap on the wrist for endowments

This fine is the second-largest fine ever issued by the FSA in relation to mortgage endowment complaints and has actually been applied to Guardian Assurance and Guardian Linked Life Assurance, divisions of Guardian Royal Exchange which was bought by Aegon in 1999. Guardian has been fined heavily because processes in force for approximately 15 months between 2003 and 2004 are said to have rejected a high level of complaints but which were subsequently upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service, and because it didn’t tell regulatory officials there might be a problem. Only Abbey National plc...