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Treasury

Answer

Mr. Weir: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints of mis-selling of (a) endowment policies and (b) other financial products by (i) tied agencies and (ii) independent financial advisers have been made to the Financial Services Authority in each of the last five years. [70370] Ruth Kelly: The Financial Services Authority, as regulator, makes rules for IFAs and for tied agents. These include rules designed to prevent mis-selling and rules which require regulated firms to follow specified complaints procedures. Where firms are unable to resolve complaints themselves, FSA rules require them to allow complainants to pursue their complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service and to comply promptly with an ombudsman's decision. The FOS has provided the following figures for complaints handled either by itself or by its predecessor bodies. Mortgage Endowment Complaints _________________________________________________________________________________________________. IFAs Percentage Tied Agents Percentage Total 2001-02 2,312 15.84 12,283 84.16 14,595 2000-01 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 9,067 1999-2000 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 3,135 1998-99 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 2,856 1997-98 n/a -- n/a -- 2,751 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} See table 3. Other investment related financial products (personal pension plans, whole of life/non mortgage-linked endowments and other `packaged' investment products) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. IFAs Percentage Tied agents Percentage Total 2001-02 1,952 15.76 10.434 84.24 12,386 2000-01 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 8,019 1999-2000 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 6,112 1998-99 {1}-- -- {1}-- -- 5,642 1997-98 n/a -- n/a 4,042 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} See table 3. Table 3. Figures for the percentage split between IFAs and tied agents across the range of investment related complaints are as follows{ 1} _________________________________________________________________________________________________. IFAs (percentage) Tied agents (percentage) 2001-02 15.8 84.2 2000-01 13.9 86.1 1999-2000 14.9 85.1 1998-99 15.5 84.5 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Breakdown figures are not available for the separate categories of investment complaints.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

389 c335-6W; 70370

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Complaints Financial services Financial Services Authority Mortgages Misrepresentation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk