The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) has closed its remaining investigations into four life insurance companies without taking any enforcement action.
The FCA launched the investigation following a thematic review, published on March 3, 2016. This identified that further work was required to determine whether six of the 11 firms that were involved in the thematic review had failed to meet FCA standards regarding the fair treatment of longstanding customers. These six firms were Abbey Life, Countrywide Assured, Old Mutual, Police Mutual, Prudential, and Scottish Widows.
The investigations into Police Mutual and Scottish Widows were closed earlier without further action.
All of the remaining investigations now have been closed, according to the FCA.
It said that it found that the conduct of the four remaining firms (Abbey Life, Old Mutual, Prudential, and Countrywide Assured) “did not warrant enforcement action.”
The FCA added that, in each firm, “some issues” had been identified during the investigations, and that they were “being addressed as part of our ongoing supervision of those firms.”
The FCA published its final guidance in December 2016 setting out its expectations on how life insurance companies should treat their closed-book customers, including when disclosing the existence of paid-up and exit charges to existing customers.
The FCA said that it would continue to assess life insurance firms' adherence to the required standards and principles, and take appropriate steps where necessary.
Learn more: The FCA.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].