General insurers’ ARs failing standards, FSA

Sales of general insurance products were found to have some of the worse standards of treating customers fairly during a recent regulator review of appointed representatives. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said firms generally need to do more to ensure appointed representatives are treating customer fairly and that they are compliant with systems and controls, recruitment and training and competence standards but the FSA went on to single out general insurers as having “the poorest standards overall”, with the mortgage sector and investment firms performing better.