Keys from the Keydata fiasco

Between 2005 and 2009 Keydata sold £475 million worth of ‘death bond’ products to over 37,000 retail investors, utilising a series of fictitious claims. This is “the first big product governance case”, where failure in this core area led to “all sorts of regulatory mayhem”. Adam Samuel sorts out the lessons learnt.

Adam SamuelBA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted atadamsamuel@aol.com.For links to where you can buy the second edition of ‘Consumer Financial Services Complaints and Compensation’, see www.adamsamuel.com/book.

Ford and Owen is fated to be one of those Upper Tribunal decisions that is too gory to be studied in detail and, at 201 pages, far too long to be read at leisure. This is a shame. Buried in the tightly reasoned decision are a whole series of important lessons for the financial services industry and regulator.