In reference to the article about the large number of complaints about the FCA (ftadviser online 18 June), this is as surprising as night following day for the victims of FSA/FCA errors.
We still struggle with issues unconnected with regulated advice, products or practice. The FSA/FCA never questioned our firm’s conduct; our complaint to it on a register data issue, aired here previously, has now rumbled on for years and has been through the FSA twice, FCA once and the Independent Complaints Commissioner three times.
Our impression of the FSA/FCA’s complaint responses is that they are never wrong. Even when we first looked some years ago, ICC was already endorsing almost every complaint it received against the FSA.
The FSA/FCA’s widely criticised autocracy, unaccountability and statutory immunity from liability to damages might almost be taken to imply that ICC’s purpose is largely to uphold nearly everything it does.
The government’s endorsement of the FSA/FCA is where the fault lies – by allowing the FSA/FCA to remain unaccountable to the Treasury or itself, it is the origin of the problem.
Alistair Hinton
Director,
Sorabji Archive,
Hereford
