Today, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published it answer in the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner’s Final Report on complaints from those affected by the collapse of Premier FX Limited in 2018.
In what can be seen as a rather cynical statement, the FCA says an apology is the appropriate solution in this case.
“At paragraph 158 of the Final Report, the Commissioner recommends that “the FCA pay 4% simple interest in the aggregate (not per annum) on the capital recovered from the Liquidator and Barclays per complaint (of which there are 33). This is subject to the forfeited and recovered monies having been paid to PFX after 25 February 2011.’
We (ie the FCA – ed.) believe the most appropriate solution in this case is an apology and a payment in recognition of complaint handling delays, which we have incurred in accordance with our published approach to first responding to complaints.’
The failure of Premier FX caused serious concern to the people who had entrusted it with their money.
Otherwise, the FCA does not believe it should compensate Premier FX customers beyond the payments it has made for delays in handling people’s complaints.
The immediate cause of Premier FX’s collapse was the decisions of the company and its sole director, the regulator claims.
FCA says:
“Our work, devoting over 12,000 hours to successful law enforcement investigations, ensured that the 167 customers with accepted claims received back all the money they had paid into Premier FX, with Barclays, the company’s banker, agreeing a voluntary payment £10,076,943.75′.
The FCA will write to complainants to explain what steps have been taken to strengthen its regulatory processes and the improvements made to its Register.