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Regulator drops investigation into poor-practice at Scottish Widows

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
12/06/2018

The financial regulator will not take any enforcement action against Scottish Widows, one of six life insurance companies it is probing over poor-practice to longstanding customers.

 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has closed the investigation into Scottish Widows but will be raising “a number of issues” with the firm.

Investigations into Prudential, Countrywide Assured, Old Mutual and Abbey Life continue, the regulator confirmed.

It ended its investigation into Police Mutual in September 2017, with no enforcement action taken.

In 2016, the FCA opened investigations into the insurance firms to look into the treatment of customers with ‘zombie’ life policies, over a failure to inform clients of certain charges, including exit fees.

The policies under scrutiny were ‘closed book’, meaning that they were no longer open to new customers.

“Given the long-term nature of closed-book products, it is vital that customers are treated fairly and given the right information on an ongoing basis in order to help them make important financial decisions,” the FCA said at the time.