UK watchdog to be criticised over insurance blunder

The UK financial watchdog earlier this year made a blunder that wiped an estimated £6 billion total share prices off insurance companies, and now this is to be addressed as senior executives could get their bonuses cut.

These senior executives of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will come under heavy criticism as a report into the watchdog’s botched announcement is published.

The leak in question revealed some planned investigations into certain areas of the insurance industry, before they were supposed to be publicly known.

This impromptu heads up scared a lot of investors and caused the share prices of insurance companies to fall.

Martin Wheatley is one of the five executives singled out for criticism as a consequence of a report into the blunder, which was written by Simon Davis, a partner of law firm Clifford Chance.

Wheatley reportedly earned £628,000 last year, including his £86,000 bonus. This year, that could be severely cut as this blunder catches up with the FCA.

One of the major criticisms at the time is that the FCA is a watchdog, and therefore helps to set the standards of other financial companies. If the one setting the standards can’t follow the standards, then they could lose face.

“These events go to the heart of the FCA’s responsibility for the integrity and good order of UK financial markets, and have been damaging both to the FCA as an institution and to the UK’s reputation for regulatory stability and competence,” George Osborne said at the time.

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