The FSA has censured Wills & Co, a retail stockbroking firm, for (amongst other things) serious failings in sales practices, staff supervision and complaints handling procedures in breach of Principles 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 11. The FSA also used its powers to vary the permission of Wills & Co to prevent it offering investment advice in the future, and the FSA would have imposed a fine of £1.5 million had the firm not been winding down its business and owed substantial sums in customer redress.

The failings were considered to be particularly serious because Wills & Co had been fined £49,000 in October 2007 for poor sales practices, risk warnings and staff monitoring. Wills & Co confirmed that remedial action had been taken, but the FSA subsequently identified the same failings in all transactions reviewed.

The sales and compliance directors were sanctioned for failing to ensure that the business was run in compliance with its regulatory obligations and for failing to ensure that remedial steps taken to correct identified failings were adequate. They have agreed not to hold senior management functions in the financial services sector for 3 and 5 years, respectively.

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http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/wills_stckb.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/d_lansdown.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/k_prichard.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/wills_stckb_2nd.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2010/029.shtml