Using today’s technology and amber and red flags, this would be a low-cost method of highlighting reckless or criminal advice and high-risk products much more quickly and effectively than at present. This information could again be passed directly to the FCA for it to consider and action as appropriate.
This same system could also collate information from whistleblowers to again speed up action by the FCA. We are told that on average it can take two years for a business to be stopped from giving bad, or even criminal, advice. I believe this simple early-warning system could cut that time by at least half with enormous benefits to clients and, of course, delivering similar savings to the FSCS.
The problems have long been identified and, due to the grotesquely unfair system of funding the FSCS, the good guys are still paying for the actions of the reckless and criminal.
This has to stop, the only question is when.
Ken Davy is founder of SimplyBiz and deputy chairman of Fintel
