The cost of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has been increasing substantially in recent years, as more mis-selling scandals have proliferated and firms have gone bust. This has led to complaints from those firms who fund the scheme and has led the FCA to undertake a “Compensation Framework Review”.
This includes looking at possible changes to the scope of protection such as limiting it to “mainstream” products. But a more serious proposal is that High Net Worth or Sophisticated Investors be excluded from compensation. The FCA suggests such individuals might be expected to absorb losses, might be able to take their own private action against a failed firm, or would have a better understanding of the risks they were taking when dealing with authorised firms.
But this is a very dubious argument when High Net Worth persons only need to have liquid assets of £250,000 or more to qualify. Many moderately wealthy individuals would have more than that in direct shareholdings, ISAs and deposit accounts. But they would hardly be in a position to finance complex legal actions and FSCS compensation is limited to £85,000 already.
It is not clear what moral principle is being invoked here except that it would potentially save the FSCS scheme money.
I suggest that high net worth or sophisticated investors send in a response to the FCA’s review – go to this link for information https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/discussion-papers/dp21-5-compensation-framework-review and an online response form.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
You can “follow” this blog by entering your email address below. You will then receive an email alerting you to new posts as they are added.