July 29, 2008
Insurance broker fined £735,000
With consumers facing increasing financial pressure from the current economic situation The Financial Services Association ( FSA ) is continuing to step up its fight against improper financial practices.
As a show of intent the FSA has imposed a massive £735,000 financial penalty on an insurance broker that the financial watchdog found had treated its customers unfairly.
Hasting Insurance was said to have cancelled over 4,500 insurance deals after a series of in-house errors had meant that the broker had issued inaccurate quotes. It was reported that the broker was attempting to remedy the fact that its customers were not paying enough. However, the FSA ruled that Hastings should have sought other alternatives to the drastic measures which resulted in the cancellation of its customer’s policies.
The FSA said that the insurance broker was not overly concerned with the interests of its customer but chose to focus on its own needs.
It was reported that the FSA could have forced Hastings to pay a financial penalty of £1 million, but Hastings agreement to an early settlement resulted in a reduced fine.