BDP is an unregulated product, it forms a part of the funding agreement between IF and the client. Their sales people require no training or accreditation to sell the BDP. So far as the client is concerned it is an insurance but you wont find it described as such in any IF literature and staff are drilled not to dscribe it as such..... its the wild west out there.

Sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced with RBSIF. Unfortunatley the mistake you made was not to have read the agreement in detail. You might expect RBSIF to act with integrity as they are part of a large bank, sadly this too is a mistake. The sales functions of RBSIF should be treated with the same caution that you would use when buying double glazing as their sole interest is in securing a sale regardless of whether this is the right for the customer, they have a target for bad debt protection so will always try to add this to a facility as they did in your case. The client relations function is not targeted in the same way as the sales arm and they will enforce every term and condition to the letter if to their advantage even if that means you go bust. Sadly I doubt you will have any joy in dealing directly with the client director and the FSA will not regualte the BDP products as RBSIF rather cutely market this as bad debt cover rather than an insurance. Perhaps moving onto your next verture would be the best use of time and of course do let you business associates have the benefit of your experiences with RBSIF.