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The FSA has said it will apologise to a firm's compliance officer for the conduct of two treating customers fairly (TCF) assessors during a supervisory visit after an official complaint was upheld.
Complaints Commissioner Sir Anthony Holland castigated the regulator's staff for allowing their relationship with the officer to "deteriorate" during the visit in September last year.
The unnamed complainant had accused the FSA representatives of "bullying behaviour".
Holland said he believed the officers did not, but should have, carried out the visit with a "more-than-usual degree of sensitivity", referring to a previous TCF assessment on which the firm and the FSA had disagreed.
On that occasion, the firm said the TCF officer had initially decided the firm passed the assessment, but later changed her mind and said it had failed.
In an email to the FSA following the September visit, the complainant alleged the FSA staff engaged in "bullying behaviour" and communicated "incorrect statements" to the officer related to the scope of the assessment.
Holland, who said he was relying to a large degree on hearsay as there has been no official investigation into the conduct of the FSA officers, criticised the regulator.
The Complaints Commissioner writes: "Unfortunately I was not present at the TCF assessment, so on the face of it, it is difficult for me to comment directly upon what was said by whom and more importantly the manner in which the comments were made by both you and the FSA assessors.
"This is because my investigations are paper-based and do not involve hearings based on sworn testimony including adversarial cross examination.
"Having said this, it is clear that a situation was allowed to develop whereby the relationship between you, the FSA assessors and the firm being assessed deteriorated to an unacceptable level."
"FSA staff should do their utmost, however difficult that may be, and I realise that sometimes that may be very difficult indeed, to ensure positively that supervision visits are conducted in a professional manner and that relationships are not allowed to deteriorate."
In its response the FSA said: "We welcome the fact that the Commissioner has limited the scope of his investigation to the manner in which the visit was conducted.
"We note that the Commissioner has upheld the complaint on this limited basis. The Commissioner has not made any recommendations to the FSA nor has he suggested that the FSA take any remedial action.
"However, the FSA will be writing to the complainant to offer an apology for the way in which the Commissioner has found that the visit was conducted."
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who checks the checker
its amazing that this meeting was about treating customers fairly, and the very people doing the checking could not practice what they preached, I am glad that someone flagged this up as it is probably more common than we think, i think that once we have jumped through yet another hurdle we are so relieved to survive the interview we forget to complain, as our rights have gradually been eroded by the FSA over a period of time with with their high handed were always right attitude,you only have to look at RDR for that,has the worm now turned?, I hope so
Posted by: geoff
Bullys always pick on small guys
Shame FSA do not apply some of the bullying tactics to sorting out the banks ..........why not fine the Board of Directors PERSONALLY ...not the organisation .......that will create a sea-change in culture .....but it will not happen becuase they are all mates togther
Posted by: Graham
It's a bit of a lottery
To be fair our TCF interview was fine. The FSA's interviewer was extremely thorough - I seem to remember it lasted about 3 hours - but he came accross as fair minded, realistic and possessed of plenty of common sense. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that he was in his fifties and had obviously had plenty of experience of real life. I suppose it's like many other aspects of life, it all depends on who you get.
Posted by: Neil F Liversidge
FSA Staff
Over the years I have sat through 5 FSA visits for a variety of reasons, TCF last year was well conducted and the FSA staff helpful and constructive, previous to that I had a visit based on sale of PPI products - I think we sold only seven over a period of two years - so very low and all for clients on a full advice basis - at the time the two very junior FSA staff gave reasonably positive feedback regarding the PPI sales, and said a report would follow. When the report arrived it was appalling stating the advice was given with no fact find being produced, no reason why letters prepared etc. This was obviously not the case and we hired a compliance firm to check the cases and send a response to the FSA refuting their report - in the meantime based on this report the FSA decided to carry out a full review of all our business which used up considerable time and resources, and which despite some minor remedial actions we passed. In the end we discovered that the initial report into the PPI sales was an error caused by the inexperienced FSA staff cutting and pasting the wrong paragraphs into the report - did they ever admit they were wrong? no. Did we ever get a letter of apology despite writing seven times to them? NO. They will not admit EVER to making errors, yet are they not human???
Posted by: Paul Burnside
FSA = Stasi
At our TCF assessment the FSA blokey started off by asking us if we understood what the FSA meant by Treating Customers Fairly. I asked him quite reasonably that it would be handy if the FSA could define 'fairness'. He simply said "We ask the questions!". Various thoughts went through my mind. (A) Fascist little sh*t. (B) He is going through that window. (C) No, I'll take note of his name, and when the Revolution comes me and three big mates will be round to see him... The Failed FSA needs to bear in mind that it is just a bunch of tax consuming (largely ignorant) functionaries that are our employees. Try looking at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPa5Ob-5Ps&feature=player_embedded
Posted by: Anonymous
Fascists
LOL - reading that last comment reminded me of the FSA themed visit we had in our London office some 2 years ago - this was at the start of the FSA's review of platforms and it seemed to me they were out scouting to see what a platform did and how it worked. Our morning started at eight with an introduction and the little 'poacher turned gamekeeper'FSA official started by saying: "I'm an ex IFA so I know all your tricks." Then followed up by saying "We are initially visiting twelve firms as part of this review and plan to place at least three into enforcement." (We were his first firm.) Nice to go in with an open mind - (Adolf would be proud!)
Posted by: Peter Knowles
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Accountable for what is said
We had out TCF meeting with the FSA some considerable time ago and passed it. Being somewhat paranoid however,I made sure I knew the names of who I would be seeing BEFORE I met them and googled them, I asked them about their own financial backgrounds and by prior agreement with the FSA staff concerned I recorded the meeting on my mobile phone as a wav.doc file and provided the FSA with a CD of the review after it had taken place. In doing so I ensured I knew enough about the background of the FSA staff to feel an equal when dealing with them, with them responsible for THEIR comments, just as I was responsible for mine. As a result, it was a very positive TCF meeting.
Posted by: Phil Castle