Financial advisers under FSA investigation are forced to undergo a police-style ‘interrogation' at Canary Wharf and are threatened with losing their permissions if they refuse to answer all of the regulator's questions, according to a solicitor close to the process.
Speaking exclusively to Professional Adviser, financial services lawyer Alasdair Sampson said the FSA records the meetings and gives interviewees a legal caution in the same way as police questioning. But the FSA’s interview rules exceed even those of the police, by threatening to strip advisers of their approved persons permissions if they refuse to answer its questions, no matter how they are phrased, according to Sampson. He said the regulator rarely makes IFAs aware of their right to cross-examine FSA officers during these “compelled interviews”, and most have no idea just how cru...
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