The Financial Services Authority will be required to pay a complainant increased redress after failing to notify a debt collection agency that the complainant had already paid required fines.
Complaint Commissioner Sir Anthony Holland has instructed the FSA to pay an unnamed complainant a total of £500 after recognising that “it does not appear that the FSA has provided you with the level of service a member of the industry and/or public would expect”.
According to the complainant, the regulator failed to tell a debt collection agency that all fines had been paid following resolution of Upper Tribunal proceedings requiring the complainant to pay £2,762.10.
The regulator recognised its failings and proposed a payment to the complainant of £50 for the trouble. It later increased this to £150 following complaints by the firm.
Sir Anthony said: “Although the FSA upheld your subsequent complaint, and accepted that there had been errors, as it had failed to notify the debt collection agency that your fees had been paid, you were unhappy with the financial award of £50 the FSA had made to you, as you felt this was ‘derisory’.”
The adviser instead sent an invoice for £2,950 to the regulator, making up what it claimed to be the average PI award plus a charge for an hourly rate plus VAT. When the FSA still did not notify the debt collection agency of its error, the complainant sent a second similar invoice.
Although the Complaints Commissioner did not agree that the £5,900 invoiced for was an appropriate award on the basis that the FSA is statutorily exempt from liability in negligence, he did require the FSA to increase its proposed payment to £500.
