FCA’s Remote Working Policy: A Step Backwards in Financial Regulation

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently announced an extension of its remote working policy, allowing 60% of its staff to work from home until at least 2026

This decision is not only baffling but also raises serious concerns about the effectiveness and accountability of the UK’s financial regulator.

At a time when major financial institutions on Wall Street are calling their staff back to the office, the FCA’s move seems out of touch with the realities of the financial sector

The regulator’s role is to oversee and ensure the stability of the financial markets, a task that requires rigorous oversight and close collaboration. How can this be achieved when a significant portion of its workforce is operating remotely?

The FCA’s decision undermines the very essence of regulatory oversight. The financial sector is complex and dynamic, requiring real-time monitoring and swift decision-making. Remote working, while beneficial in certain contexts, can lead to delays and miscommunications that could have serious repercussions for the market and consumers.

Moreover, this policy extension sends a troubling message about the FCA’s priorities. Instead of focusing on enhancing its regulatory capabilities and ensuring robust oversight, the FCA appears more concerned with accommodating the preferences of its staff. This is a dangerous precedent that could erode public trust in the regulator’s ability to effectively oversee the financial sector.

The FCA must reconsider this ill-advised policy and align itself with the broader industry trend of returning to the office. The integrity and stability of the UK’s financial markets depend on it.

Tax Investigation Insurance

Market leading tax fee protection insurance for businesses, sole traders and individuals. Protect yourself from accountancy fees in the event of an HMRC enquiry.

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your accountant (your tax return agent) to:

• Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
• Attend any meeting with HMRC
• Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
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Bailey Faces Questions Over Role in London Capital and Finance Scandal

Bank Governor faces questions on his role in FCA’s London Capital and Finance fiasco pic.twitter.com/1HHtOidSm1

— Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) January 6, 2021

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

• Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
• Attend any meeting with HMRC
• Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
• Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly

Please click here for details.

FCA Looking for Policyholders wrt Covid19 and Business Interruption Insurance

The FCA is looking for policyholders who are unsure about whether their business interruption insurance extension covers the impacts of COVID-19, examples will be reviewed by the high court.

Email biinsurancetestcase@fca.org.uk by tomorrow 📩 https://t.co/Sdol3D6D47

— FSB (@fsb_policy) May 19, 2020

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

• Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
• Attend any meeting with HMRC
• Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
• Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
• Premiums are Annual Premiums.
• Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT. 
• Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
• There is a NIL excess on all policies.

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FCA Orders Loan and Credit Card Payments Freeze

The FCA has announced plans to freeze loan and credit card payments for up to three months as part of emergency measures for consumers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

The measures could come into force as soon as 9 April. The Financial Conduct Authority said the process was being fast-tracked “given the national emergency and the significant impact on consumers’ finances right now”.

It is aimed at consumers and renters who are not benefiting from existing relief measures that have targeted homeowners – with mortgage payment holidays – or business owners.

The proposals include a temporary freeze on loan and credit card payments for consumers who are facing financial difficulties as a result of the outbreak.

The FCA said consumers who were at risk of having their credit cards suspended because of the regulator’s new affordability rules would not lose access to their accounts.

Lenders would also have to waive interest charges on arranged overdrafts up to £500 over the same period, which would extend relief already announced by some banks including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds.

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

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What On Earth Possessed The FCA??

A ludicrous advert and a ludicrous situation whereby the FCA is encouraging people to make claims!

It is meant to be impartial, as such it should inform people of the deadline; but not encourage them to make the claims.

CEO of Barclays Fined £642K By Regulators

Regulators have fined Barclays CEO James Staley £642,430 for failures in his handling of a whistelblower at Barclays.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority said he had "failed to act with due skill, care and diligence in the way he acted in response to an anonymous letter received by Barclays in June 2016".

Barclays must also now report annually to the regulators detailing how it handles whistleblowing, with "personal attestations" required from those responsible for the relevant systems and controls.

FYI:

October 2015 Barclays said Staley's annual pay will consist of a salary of 1.2 million pounds, a role-based “allowance” of 1.15 million pounds in shares, a cash allowance of up to 400,000 pounds and up to 5.5 million pounds in annual bonus.

FCA PPI Campaign Deadline Advert

Without a doubt, this is the most ridiculous financial advert I have ever seen.

No wonder the FCA disabled the comments section!

The FCA Kowtows To The Banks

FCA gives in to pressure from banks to set cut off date for all PPI redress claims at end of June 2019 despite duty to protect consumers

— Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) August 2, 2016

FCA Kowtows To Banks Over PPI

FCA thought banks should write to customers over PPI but changed mind to just a marketing campaign - banks victory https://t.co/pVcXmx2MMv

— Katherine Griffiths (@KGriffithsTimes) June 16, 2016

FCA Cancels Report Into Banking Culture

A major report on banking culture was just quietly scrapped https://t.co/7xzvqSoNQd

— Indy Business (@TheIndyBusiness) December 31, 2015

Why has the FCA cancelled its report into banking?

FCA To Investigate Tesco

Unsurprisingly Tesco is to be investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over the £250M profit shortfall in its accounts.

Additionally, the Serious Fraud Office has said it is also prepared to intervene if necessary.

Tesco is quoted by the Telegraph:

"Tesco will continue to co-operate fully with the FCA and other relevant authorities considering this matter."

Wonga Profts Fall 53%

Wonga has posted pre-tax profits of £39.7M for 2013, a fall of 53% from the previous year's profits of £84.5M.

The figures contain £19M of "remediation" costs, relating to systems issues and growing its overseas business. The results are chronologically before Wonga's £2.6M fine for sending thousands of letters to customers in arrears from fictional law companies.

Andy Haste, chairman, is quoted by the Telegraph:

"Wonga has the ability to be great once again.

We need to repair the reputation, regain trust and get an accepted seat at the table of financial services."

This will be an uphill struggle, as the FCA has proposed a.o. capping the fees and rates charged on payday loans at 0.8% a day.

Barclays Fined For Co-mingling

Barclays, the bank that likes to stay in the headlines, is to be fined £38M for breaching City rules requiring clients’ funds to be kept separate from its own assets (ie it was co-mingling).

The size of the fine is but small change for the bank, and does not inflict any pain on it whatsoever!

RBS Fined £15M

The Royal Bank of Scotland has received yet another fine, this time it has been fined £14.5M by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to ensure that advice given to mortgage customers was suitable.

The FCA said that the fine for RBS and the NatWest reflected "serious failings" in their advised mortgage sales business. The firms failed to ensure that advice given to customers was suitable, according to the FCA. Two reviews of sales from 2012 found that in over half the cases the suitability of the advice was not clear from the file or call recording.

Customers were not advised properly over the affordability of mortgages, or the appropriate term of products being offered. Others were given poor advice when looking to consolidate their debts.

Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FCA is quoted by the Telegraph:

“Taking out a mortgage is one of the most important financial decisions we can make. Poor advice could cost someone their home so it’s vital that the advice process is fit for purpose. 

Both firms failed to ensure that their customers were getting the best advice for them.

We made our concerns clear to the firms in November 2011 but it was almost a year later before the firms started to take proper steps to put things right. 

Where we raise concerns with firms we expect them to take effective action to resolve them without delay. This simply failed to happen in this case.”

The FSA initially drew the firms’ attention to issues in their mortgage advice process in November 2011. However, no effective attempts to remedy the problems were made until the end of September 2012.
 

The fine is of course paltry in terms of a bank the size of RBS, therefore one has to question whether it is in the slightest way effective in "managing" the future behaviour of banks.

Shutting The Stable Door

Reforms introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will require borrowers to endure “invasive” inquiries into their spending and lifestyle, including their expenditure on weekly groceries, gym membership etc.

This is all very well and prudent. However, given that the bedrock of the UK economy is the ever increasing value of property and that the debt horse well and truly bolted many years ago, these reforms are somewhat late and counterproductive.

Wheatley Lambasts Outrageous PPI Mis-selling

Martin Wheatley, the CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is currently appearing before the Treasury Select Committee. He is less than impressed with the fallout from the PPI mis-selling scandal and the way that the banks are handling complaints.

Currently the FOS is upholding 90% of PPI mis-selling cases referred to it after they had been rejected by the banks.

Wheatley says it is "absolutely not acceptable" and that it is "outrageous" that the number upheld by the FOS is so high. He stated that the FCA has been looking into how banks handle complaints, as per the Telegraph:

"We have taken action and we will take more action and we will continue to look at how banks handle complaints. 

We've got two large investigations underway and have two cases where we have issued strong fines."

Sadly PPI mis-selling is but one of many areas where Britain's financial services industry mired itself in its own shit.

Banks Embroiled In Another Mis-selling Scandal

As loyal readers know, I have on numerous occasions noted that the financial services industry in the UK has tarnished its image because of its greed and corruption, and seems intent on bringing about its own self destruction.

Today we see yet another example wherein its greed has been exposed because of yet another mis-selling scandal.

This time the mis-selling relates to card protection and identity theft insurance products by CPP Group. The BBC reports that UK banks have agreed to set up a £1.3BN fund to compensate the victims.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that customers had been "given misleading and unclear information about the policies".

CPP Group and 13 banks and credit card firms will pay for the compensation.

Some seven million customers could now expect to receive letters from CPP from 29 August 2013, explaining how to claim compensation. Victims will receive 8% interest on the amounts being reimbursed.

During the period of mis-selling between January 2005 and March 2011, CPP sold 4.4 million policies and generated £354M in gross profit. A further 18.7 million policies were renewed during the same period, generating an income of £656M.

Many customers were put in contact with CPP when they rang a number on their new bank card in order to activate it. Many thought they were talking to their bank, but they were in fact being put in touch with a salesperson from CPP.

CPP then used the opportunity of the call to offer card protection insurance. If the customer bought the product, the bank got a commission.

CPP Group sold a card protection product costing about £30 a year, that was designed to cover losses if a card was lost or stolen. It said customers would benefit from up to £100,000 of insurance cover, but customers were already covered by their banks. Generally, cardholders are not liable for unauthorised card payments on lost or stolen credit and debit cards; ie the product was unnecessary.

Needless to say we can expect to see the "ambulance chasing" financial compensation firms jumping on this bandwagon and offering to reclaim victims' money back in exchange for a percentage; which of course is completely unnecessary,as the victims can reclaim the money themselves.

RBS Fined £5.6M

RBS has been fined £5.6M by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for "incorrectly reporting transactions they made in wholesale markets".

Seemingly, between 2007 and 2013, RBS either didn't report or incorrectly reported approximately 45 million transactions!

Farewell The FSA - You Won't Be Missed!

At long last the hapless FSA has been disbanded, and replaced by a three pronged system of governance (dare I say "Tripartite"?). As per the FT, the three prongs are:

1 The Prudential Regulation Authority, an arm of the Bank of England headed by Andrew Bailey, will supervise 1,700 banks, insurers and large investment firms.

2 The Financial Conduct Authority, an independent agency led by Martin Wheatley, will supervise behaviour at the same firms and have sole responsibility for 25,000 more, most of them brokers, investment advisers and money managers. The FCA’s multifaceted task includes protecting investors, policing the markets and promoting competition.

3 Mr Wheatley and Mr Bailey will also sit on the third new UK regulator, the Financial Policy Committee, a consensual body charged with spotting and disarming broad threats to financial stability.

Let's see how this all works then!