According to the Office of National Statistics, around half the UK now conduct their banking affairs online. (1) In fact, you don’t even need a computer to do your banking – thanks to banking apps, it’s now possible to make payments and manage your account via your smart phone.
You’ve lost a considerable amount of money on an investment product that you were led to believe would perform well. It’s clear you deserve some kind of compensation. But have you been the victim of investment fraud, or have you been mis-sold a product that wasn’t suitable for your needs?
The Financial Advice Market Review is a recent initiative organised by the government and the FCA to investigate financial advice given to customers across the UK.
In a new monthly series starting from October 2015, we’ll be naming the latest investment firms to be denounced or investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You should avoid dealing with any of the firms named in this list at all costs.
Lloyds Bank has hit the press for all the wrong reasons in recent years. Historically the bank has been accused of being a serial offender when it comes to investment mis-selling; in 2013 it was rocked by a highly publicised FCA investigation that resulted in a record £28million fine, several official apologies and a solemn promise to clean up its act.
When you plan to make an investment, your first step is most likely to talk to an investment adviser. But with all the stories of mis-sold investment products hitting the newspapers in recent years, it’s more important than ever to hold your adviser to account.
Since 2010 the high street banks have been hitting the headlines for mis-selling investment products to their customers. Most of them have apologised, promised to make changes and paid out a hefty amount in fines and compensation, but investments are still being mis-sold to unsuspecting customers.
Investment mis-selling never seems to be out of the news for long. UK banks and other financial institutions are taking steps to stop mis-selling in their sales teams, but the pressure to clean up their acts only grows as they come under increasing public scrutiny.
After sending a report to Santander, they agreed with our findings and awarded Mr Snowden an amount of £7,000 made up from a refund of the losses together with interest and compensation.