Lack of regulatory rigour from FCA

The fact that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) didn’t even meet the victims of the £138m family trusts scandal before making the decision to investigate is simply unfathomable.

The failure to meet victims is just negligent. How can the regulator say that there is nothing for it to investigate if it hasn’t spoken with victims first hand?

Mutuals including Leeds Building Society introduced hundreds of customers to unregulated advisers who sold them family trusts linked to properties and investment schemes for their savings which have since become mired in financial complications.

These were unregulated advisers hosted under the roofs of regulated institutions. Institutions that people trust more than banks.

Yet the FCA is claiming that building societies had not been conducting a regulated activity when it referred customers onto advisers and that it can’t hold them responsible for the actions of the Philips Trust Corporation (PTC).

It’s another example of victims not being listened to by those in corridors of power. It sets a worrying precedence. The FCA has shown complacency in dealing with this scandal at best and a disdain of the victims at worse.

In light of the fact that FCA hadn't spoken to any victims and that a whistleblower had raised concerns in 2020, the Treasury must now take action. There are clear regulatory shortcomings.

Victims of this scandal are primarily the elderly and vulnerable. Their only crime was to trust advisers housed in a setting that they had no reason to doubt. Their pain and anguish will only be heightened knowing no one will listen.