FSA

The regulator's about-turn to allow commission payments on Holloway-style income protection plans after 2012 proves the RDR neglected lower-premium paying consumers from the start.

The FSA has fined RBS and NatWest a total of £2.8m for customer complaint failings after finding the banks responded inadequately to more than half the gripes it reviewed.

An investment banker, his wife and a close friend have pleaded guilty to eight counts of insider dealing in a case brought to court by the FSA.

An analysis the FSA ordered from PwC into what went wrong at RBS cost more than £7.6m, according to a Freeedom of Information (FOI) request.

Risk-profiling tools are imperfect models which threaten to turn the art of investing into an imprecise science and should only be used as a guideline, says Ian Lowes.

The Association of Financial Mutuals (AFM) has welcomed the FSA's exemption of Holloway protection products from the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) but said the ‘limited' concession does not go far enough.

The FSA says adviser firms' over reliance on risk profiling and asset allocation tools could lead to serious customer detriment and warns it will take tough action on companies failing in this area.

FSA chairman Adair Turner may ask the government for the power to block hostile buyouts in the banking sector in a bid to prevent aggressive acquisitions from disrupting financial stability.

Martin Wheatley, head of Hong Kong's financial regulatory body, has emerged as a leading candidate to head the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA) when it is spun out of the FSA next year, according to reports.

Today's quarterly FSA consultation paper (CP) provides a valuable opportunity to explore better ways of communicating income drawdown risk to investors, pensions experts say.