The Pensions Regulator Has Come Down Hard On Data Errors & Omissions

Trustees and those responsible for administering workplace pensions will need to improve standards of record keeping. Following research during 2009, the Pensions Regulator published a consultation today setting out standards for member records and requiring schemes that fall short of requirements.

The regulator will continue to 'educate and enable' schemes to improve their record keeping performance but is clear now that further measures are needed. Under these proposals, it will now be a requirement for all schemes to maintain high-quality standards of data.

The regulator proposes to set targets for the accuracy of the common data which schemes must hold. The regulator also proposes to review performance of schemes. Where schemes fail to have adequate plans in place to resolve data issues, the regulator will require them to improve.

Good record-keeping applies to all schemes, whether trust-based or contract-based. In respect of contact-based arrangements, the Pensions Regulator works closely with the Financial Services Authority to improve standards and take corrective action where necessary. Read Full Document | Email Feedback

A director of a mortgage and general insurance firm has been banned by The FSA from holding senior positions in the financial services industry after his failure to comply with rules of handling client money resulted in the loss of approximately £85,000 of his customers money.

Matthew Sixsmith was the director of Manchester-based Bridgewater House UK, which dealt in the sub prime mortgage market and also arranged life and critical illness insurance in connection with those mortgages.

When the firm sold an insurance policy, it charged its clients two years of insurance premiums upfront and then added this amount to the mortgage. The scheme worked by the firm agreeing with its customers that it would hold this money and then pay the insurance premiums to insurers on their behalf.

However, Sixsmith failed to separate his customers money from that of the firm. Using only one bank account under the name of the firm, he tried to administer both his business and the premium payments customers had entrusted to him.

As a result, when Sixsmiths firm ceased trading in September last year, approximately £85,000 of customers money was lost as he kept no record of when these payments should begin or end for each of the customers.

Read Final Notice | Email Feedback

ComplianceConsultant.Org have the power to deliver whatever you need from a Complaints process and documentation to point of sales documentation or compliance manual. If you have urgent compliance needs and need assistance or advice in tackling the best way forward, go to the website ComplianceConsultant.Org.

FSA confirms plan for publishing information

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today confirmed that it will require firms to publish information on how they handle complaints, to help people see how firms are performing in this important area and to drive up complaints handling standards across the industry.

Firms that receive 500 or more complaints in a six month period will have to publish the following information twice a year:

• How many complaints they have opened and closed;
• The percentage closed within eight weeks; and
• The percentage of complaints upheld.

Firms will need to present this information by five product areas: banking, home finance, general insurance and pure protection, life and pensions, and investments.

The FSA will then use this information to publish a consolidated list of complaints data covering all affected firms twice a year.

Sheila Nicoll, the FSAs director of conduct policy, said:

"We are committed to greater transparency where this will help consumers. For the first time, people will be able to see how many complaints particular firms receive and how they handle them. We believe that this will help improve how firms treat their customers and provide incentives for firms to deal more effectively with complaints when they are received. Our more intensive approach to supervision places a greater focus on assessing how firms deal with their customers; and how firms handle complaints is a key part of this"