FCA refers six firms to enforcement over exit charges

Further work planned following closed book review

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has referred six firms to its enforcement division for investigation after finding problems with the way they treated their closed-book life insurance clients.

The regulator said in its thematic review published on 3 March it was concerned the firms had failed to inform their customers about exit or paid-up charges on certain policies. Firms being investigated, which make up more than half of the eleven firms sampled, are Abbey Life, Countrywide, Old Mutual, Police Mutual, Prudential and Scottish Widows. The FCA will investigate the firms' behaviour around disclosing exit and paid-up charges to customers after December 2008, when regulatory rules around treating customers fairly took effect. It wants to establish the reasons for the pract...