Senior FCA executives have been invited to scrutinise the findings before the final report is published
A draft report has been completed into the events that led to a FCA briefing in March that wiped billions of pounds from the value of UK insurers.
Senior executives at the FCA have been invited to scrutinise the findings of the report, completed by Clifford Chance law firm partner Simon Davis, which was ordered by the Chancellor George Osborne.
They will get the chance to respond prior to the publication of the final report – expected by the end of the year.
Among FCA executives who could face criticism are director of supervision Clive Adamson, director of communications Zitah McMillan and chief executive Martin Wheatley, who is understood to have been abroad at the time of the story’s publication, Sky News reports.
During a news briefing In March, Adamson told the Telegraph that the FCA planned to review 30 million life insurance policies sold between the 1970s and early 2000s. Market reaction to the story wiped billions of pounds from the value of life insurers.
The FCA took more than six hours to issue a clarification that it did not plan to individually review the policies, but that it was embarking on supervisory work about the fair treatment of life insurance customers.
Share prices bounced back after the clarification, confirming that the market was trading on inaccurate information.
During Davis’ probe, many of the insurance company executives and board members spoken to are said to have been critical of the practice of pre-briefing by the regulator.
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