Also, I read in The Independent today that Liverpool Victoria has been fined £840,000 for mis-selling payment protection insurance:
PPI mis-selling fine for Liverpool Victoria - Business News, Business - The Independent
Judging by the article, it doesn't sound like they're genuinely sorry for what they have done. If the FSA hadn't fined them, they would have probably carried on the same way and I bet they wouldn't have paid compensation to the customers they misled either.
I'm not laughing at these 2 companies just because they are rivals, indeed if one of my own colleagues or my own employer behaved in this way, I would expect them to be dealt with appropriately too.
I think it's time there was an industry-wide code of conduct that everyone working in insurance has to follow, and this should apply to the individuals, not just the companies. If an individual breaks the code, then they should be banned from working in insurance (particularly in a customer-facing role) for a period of years. In particularly serious cases, they should be banned indefinitely. The CII has a code of ethics that all its members must follow, but it's not effective enough because not all insurance employees are CII members; for most staff it's not even a requirement that they become a member. So that's why I think there should be a compulsory code of conduct covering all insurance staff. What does everyone else here think?
FSA fines Hastings £735,000 
Re: FSA fines Hastings £735,000 
I remember this being in the news a year ago, at the time when they were actually cancelling the policies and a lot of customers were upset about it. I remember thinking to myself "Surely this is against the FSA rules?" I work in insurance myself and I'm fed up with certain people in our industry who think they can mistreat customers like this.
