Double fines await IFAs for data security lapses

From next April, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will join the FSA as an organisation with the power to fine firms that breach its rules. It follows a record £3.2m FSA fine handed out earlier this week to HSBC subsidiaries, including more than £1.6m to the group's insurance arm HSBC Life for data security lapses. City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) says the fine represents a huge jump from the £980,000 fine handed to Nationwide Building Society for similar failures in 2007 and suggests the FSA's crackdown will get worse. But it adds an additional threat to f...