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MSE News: 'We will be different to the FSA'
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Former_MSE_Guy
Posts: 1,650 Forumite
"'We will be different to the FSA', says new regulator, the FCA, as regime changes today... "
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Another problem with the FSA was its lack of cajones in using its ultimate sanction of taking away a licence from a firm: too many finance firms got to that point, but the FSA refused to take their licence away because they were scared of looking like a poor regulator.
Another problem was that when eBay and PayPal moved to Luxembourg to avoid coming under FSA regulation, I don't recall anything being said, even though they now come under EU law.0 -
What I don't understand is, mis-behaviour is NOT a crime.
How can you chop any one's head off for mis-conduct?
Rats will be dancing in the rafters tonight.
I would like to raise the FCA's attention to the emergence of GAP insurance. I came across this thing six years ago, and it's appeared again in March 2013.
The GAP insurance will pay out if your car is written off by your car insurance company in the first three years from new.
The pay out is the difference between the brand new price aad the insurance payout. So, if you bought a new car for £15k, but in year two you have a bad accident, so the car is written off, and the insurance company pays you £10k, the GAP insurance will pay you £5k to put you back in the position to buy a new car, minus the £400 premium, of course. The GAP does not pay out if your insurance repairs the car.
Insurance companies apply a simple formula to decide whether to write off a car. if it's going to cost more than £7000 to repair a car that is worth £10,000, then they will just give you £10k, and write the car off. Accident repairs are more likely to be £500 to £2,000 , so a write-off hardly ever happens in the first three years, so the GAP insurance very rarely pay out.
It is possibly even more useless than PPI, but the persistence of the salesman means it must be highly lucrative. After saying NO at every encounter, he has the audacity to say THE FSA considers the insurance SO IMPORTANT, that I have to sign a document to prove to the FSA I have been offered this insurance.
Effectively, the car dealership is pretending the FSA believes I should buy the GAP insurance, and the salesman cannot sell me the car unless I sign the document saying I categorically do not want GAP insurance, even though it is (seemingly) against FSA advice.
Selling you something you will unlikely to benefit from is what
a good salesman does. Millions of motorists have been sold a lemon and keep going back for more. Can't be helped.
What I do object to, is, the dealership pretending the FSA is recommending an insurance by implication. This is mis-representation of the FSA/FCA's name for gain. This certainly comes under the category of MIS-CONDUCT, but NOT a crime.
Fudge ahead, FCA, I expect nothing from you. All sensible intelligent people know that the only way to enforce good business practice is to have both parties turn up with Tommy guns, count the cash and the goods under armed supervision, before shaking hands and saying "Nice doing business with you.". Oh yah, back out of the room with safety off.0 -
Where does this drivel come from?What I don't understand is, mis-behaviour is NOT a crime.
How can you chop any one's head off for mis-conduct?
Rats will be dancing in the rafters tonight.
Removing a licence to operate hardly constitutes chopping off someone's head.
Warning: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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So the former regulators that were complicit in the destruction of all our public and personal financial losses get a quick re-brand, rather than a public lynching of every one of them. Justice ain't what it used to be.0
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temporary1 wrote: »So the former regulators that were complicit in the destruction of all our public and personal financial losses get a quick re-brand
Not all. Turner who as head of the CBI was a leading proponent of Britain joining the Euro !!, and then headed the FSA with such success through the economic crisis, is off to a job in the George Soros thinktank.0 -
I had a simple clear case of breach of contract rejected by the FSA last year. They stated that although they allowed the fund to quote the FSA as their governing body they in fact had no jurisdiction over them?!? I may refer this to the new body.
In the case of PPI, nobody HAD to buy, I certainly didn't, if they did they then thought it a safeguard worth paying for. I can see no case against the Banks whatsoever. Whoever started this one clearly wants to see the end of banking in the UK.0 -
But, in many cases, that is what customers were told by the banks (or loans would not be given).. . . In the case of PPI, nobody HAD to buy, . . .
Also, in many cases, customers would never qualify to claim on these "policies" so the banks were engaged, at best, in blatant misrepresentation or, at worst, deliberate fraud.
I only hope, for our sakes, you are not a banker - or heaven help us all.Warning: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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With PPI, no-one comes out of that smelling like roses. The banks did use over the top pressure skills coupled with low knowledge and poor trained staff. Then you starting having people with no financial background selling it (car dealers, people buying goods on credit etc). The FSA knew PPI was being sold that way for 20 years and gave no warnings but decided more or less overnight to say it was wrong and then backdate 2011 rules retrospectively making it very difficult for the banks to deal with complaints. Consumers have seen it as a chance to make easy money and there are now more try-it-on/fraudulent complaints than genuine ones. Claims companies are profiteering with their lies to get people signed up. No-one really holds the moral high ground on this. It really is the wild west. Scam sales, scam complaints, scam companies scamming consumers into putting in scam complaints.....
The FSA's biggest failing was it's focus on micromanagement of minor or insignificant issues whilst totally ignoring the major issues. It put very little focus on shutting down scams. Most of us here suffer the scam phone calls every week. Boiler Room Scams, pension transfer scams such as those that say they will pay you a bonus if you transfer or you can get cash from your pension. Yet you see little action to stop those but we see consumers being hit by these week after week on these forums. IFAs account for 1% of complaints at the FOS and the FOS reject most of those. Yet the FSA spent more money on IFAs than it did any other area. Any business person will tell you that you dont waste over £4 billion in an area that accounts for under 1% of issues. You focus on the areas that do create issues or require sorting.
When you ask what the FSA got right during its tenure, you would be hard pushed to think of anything.I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
Whilst agreeing with much of what you say, I think you misjudge the public to some extent.. . . No-one really holds the moral high ground on this. It really is the wild west. Scam sales, scam complaints, scam companies scamming consumers into putting in scam complaints.....
I think the truth is that most of joe public don't understand much of what goes on in the financial world and have made PPI claims simply because they just don't know whether they have been scammed or not and take a just-in-case approach. It's no different, in my view, to seeking advice about any benefits a person might be entitled to claim.Warning: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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Not all. Turner who as head of the CBI was a leading proponent of Britain joining the Euro !!, and then headed the FSA with such success through the economic crisis, is off to a job in the George Soros thinktank.
At least he didn't get the BOE job."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0
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