The regulator's crackdown on rogue brokers is gaining pace with the annoucement of another banned director
The FSA has this week continued its crackdown on rogue intermediaries, banning the director of a Herefordshire IFA for improper use of client money.
Nigel Layton of Powell Price, which primarily conducted insurance business, had failed to pass on client premiums to insurers, leaving at least 16 clients uninsured. He had used the money to run the day to day activities of the business.
Recent months have seen the FSA take action against a string of errant brokers. Last month, a director of Swindon-based insurance broker Chapel Finance was banned for failing to ensure that 225 insurance policies were underwritten.
Chapel also held client money that it was not authorised to do and it failed to pass the money onto its broker for underwriting the 240 payment protection and 490 GAP policies it sold from January 2005 to February 2006.
And last November, the regulator banned a trio of directors. Christopher Whiteley received a ban from performing any function related to regulated activities after his company, Whiteley Insurance Consultants, was discovered to have left thousands of consumers without proper insurance. Meanwhile two directors of ICM Group had their permissions withdrawn for failing to pass clients’ premiums to insurers, using the money to run the business.
The FSA has stressed that it is prepared to take tough action against those who deliberately flout its client money rules. This escalation in enforcement action, even against firms such as Powell Price where only a limited number of clients were affected, shows that the regulator is willing to follow through its threats.
