FSA - is it useless?

Hi,

I wanted to notify the FSA (Financial Services Authority) about a bank which is being completely incompetent. However I read on

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that "The FSA does not deal with specific consumer complaints." So how do they get to know that a firm is going off the rails - read it in the papers?

br, Dave.

Reply to
Dave
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In message , Dave writes

What makes you think the FSA should be bothered by incompetent banks?

Incompetence is not within their remit.

Nor should it be.

Reply to
john boyle

There's a different quango for that, isn't there? The Banking Ombudsman.

Reply to
Ronald Raygun

Thats right.

Reply to
john boyle

In the FSA website at

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it states: Protecting consumers

We protect consumers by regulating the financial services industry.

- requiring firms and advisers to be honest, financially sound and competent

Maybe their consumer web site is wrong and you have the full charter (if charter is the right word). So either the FSA should be interested, or the general information on the web is wrong (in which case the FSA is incompetent.)

How incompetent does a bank need to be before it's stopped from trading ? I'm not just interested in my complaint I want the bank investigated for competence.

I once complained to the Association of British Insurers and the next letter I got was from Scotland Yard Serious Fraud Office. So it does happen.

Dave.

Reply to
Dave

No, it's wrong.

The *FOS* is now the forum for specific consumer complaints of banking incompetence.

The FOS and FSA are supposed to liaise on issues which may indicate a general rather than a specific problem.

If the OP is complaining about the former as much as the latter, then it is, ahem, incompetent of the FSA to suggest that "it's not me, guv".

Reply to
Rhoy the Bhoy

In message , Rhoy the Bhoy writes

You are right, of course, but the main point is that the FSA isnt interested in complaints about admin. Theft and fraud, yes.

Reply to
john boyle

But, as the OP has pointed out, competence monitoring is part of the FSA's brief. Maladmin is often the first sign of major incompetence, but is a fault in itself.

But you may be right; the FSA may well not be interested in doing its job

Reply to
Rhoy the Bhoy

In message , Rhoy the Bhoy writes

Undoubtedly!

Reply to
john boyle

I recently complained that MBA keeps sending me mail with credit card offers, credit card cheques, etc even though I have written several times and say stoppit.

They say they take notice of the Mail Preference Service which I joined a year ago.

They do not, they just send a standard letter telling you to join.

Even though the FSA bosses have an article in the FT saying they want to discourage excess borrowing, when I complained, guess wot they said

"Not our business".

The FSA is costing a fortune, employing hundreds of clerks, and is judge, jury and executioner when they feel like it, but down at the ground level they are a bureacracy who just shuffle paper.

Reply to
Michael Mause

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