FSA fines Aspray for non-compliance

by Gill Montia

Story link: FSA fines Aspray for non-compliance

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has levied a £21,000 fine on Blackburn-based insurance intermediary, Aspray Limited.

The firm, which specialises in managing insurance claims for property repairs, has been found wanting in its supervision of appointed representatives.

It also misled customers and failed to maintain appropriate systems and controls for the recruitment, training and monitoring of appointed representatives.

Clients were told that Aspray’s services were free of charge when in fact cancellation charges could be incurred and its representatives had discretion to charge an insurance excess.

The firm claimed that all its contractors were screened and only quality local tradesman were used whereas in reality most contractors were found using sources such as ‘Yell.com’ and were not properly vetted.

Finally, Aspray did not inform customers about their right to refer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service and misled the FSA by claiming that it had made compliance visits to all its appointed representative, when it had not.

The FSA’s head of retail enforcement, Jonathan Phelan, comments: “It is vital that principal firms maintain effective controls over the recruitment, training and monitoring of their appointed representatives and it is very important that the principal firm ensures that clients are not misled about the services provided and terms of business of the network, and firms must not provide false or misleading information to the FSA.”