The Financial Services Authority has hit Aegon with a £750,000 fine for not revealing it had potential regulatory problems as a result of "serious systematic flaws" in mortgage endowment mis-selling complaints handling.
FEARS ARE growing thousands of older homeowners may be mis-sold equity release plans which allow cash to be released from their property, suggests the Times , as figures reveal the equity release market has topped £5bn.
FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL, Britain's biggest retail fund manager, is preparing to launch its first new investment trust for ten years, reports the Times .
Financial advisers are polarised by the quality of their advice as some push risky products others would never recommend, according to Clive Briault, FSA managing director of retail markets.
How do you think the FSA would respond if a financial services firm said something was a success when it had in fact been a failure? Could this be considered misleading under the terms of financial promotion rules?
The consumer watchdog Which? has published a discussion paper calling on the financial services industry to work with it to restore consumer confidence by, among other things, reforming commission based payments.
The Financial Services Authority has plans to launch a product risk assessment tool later this year which is designed to act as an early warning against potential problems for consumers.
THE BITTER DISPUTE between the Financial Services Authority and Legal & General over mortgage endowment mis-selling has flared up again, says the Daily Telegraph , as the insurer has demanded access to the regulator's secret papers.
The Financial Services Authority says it has been vindicated in its actions against Legal & General over mortgage endowment mis-selling because the firm was found to have mis-sold policies.
The crux of whether or not Legal & General had a widespread mis-selling case to answer, in respect of sale of its Flexible Mortgage Policy to consumers, seems in part to relate to the quality of the FSA-commissioned Endowment Sales Review.