A final notice from the City regulator revealed that Santander had been fined £17,682,730, reduced to £12,377,800 after it agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation.
Mystery-shopping exercises and a wealth management thematic review by the FCA found there was a significant risk of Santander UK giving unsuitable advice to its customers.
Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime for the FCA, said: “Customers trusted Santander to help them manage their money wisely, but it failed to live up to that responsibility.”
| Key findings from the FCA’s investigation |
• Santander failed to ensure advisers adequately knew the personal circumstances and appetite for risk of customers before making a recommendation. • It failed to provide clear information about its products and services. • For its tailored premium investments, Santander failed to carry out regular ongoing checks to ensure the investments were still meeting customer needs. • It failed to ensure new advisers were properly trained before being allowed to give investment advice, and failed to monitor that advice. |
Santander temporarily withdrew from offering investment advice in December 2012 to put its 800 advisers through an RDR training programme.
A spokesman for the bank said at the time that advisers required “additional support and training to meet the expected standards” of the new regulatory regime.
The FCA final notice revealed that the company pulled its advice proposition due to concerns by the former Financial Services Authority into the quality of advice it offered. The bank eventually closed its bancassurance division to new business in February 2013.
Right to reply
Steve Pateman, head of UK banking at Santander, said the company regretted the failings but expected the detriment to customers to be low given the performance of the underlying investments.
He added: “To ensure that any concerns our customers may have are addressed we will be writing to them this summer, to offer them an opportunity to withdraw from their investment or have their sale reviewed.”
