The FCA has rejected criticism by the Complaint Commissioner of its handling of consumer complaints about its probe into the British Steel Pension Scheme transfer debacle.
The regulator said that together with the Financial Ombudsman Service and the FSCS it had helped more than 6,500 former members.
It said it had learned lessons but pointed out that most BSPS members had been helped and action had been taken.
It added that at least £106m in redress has been offered to 1,870 former BSPS members to put them back in the position they would have been at retirement. It has also taken enforcement action against more than 20 individuals and firms where there was evidence of serious misconduct.
The Complaints Commissioner, in its final report on the complaints, criticised the FCA for failing to act quickly enough to protect BSPS members and said there were failings in the FCA’s handling of the pension transfer debacle which saw many BSPS members preyed on by unscrupulous advisers and encouraged to transfer their pensions to unsuitable schemes.
The FCA said this week in a statement that it “sympathises” with former members of the BSPS scheme who had lost money due to unsuitable advice and said it had learned a great deal from the case, particularly its need to improve collaboaration with other regulators and bodies.
It said: “We sympathise with former members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) who lost money after they were given unsuitable advice from people they trusted. Complaints are a valuable source of feedback which help us improve and learn. There have also been four independent reports into the BSPS since 2018, which have helped us learn lessons. We have accepted several of their recommendations and implemented improvements, including those below.
“We now have much closer collaboration between the FCA, The Pensions Regulator, Pension Protection Fund and the Money and Pensions Service. This has improved intelligence sharing, enabling us to identify defined benefit pension transfer risks more swiftly.”
The regulator said it was also collecting more pension transfer data from advisory firms to “proactively monitor trends.”
It has created a tool to enable people to check if they may have had unsuitable defined benefit pension transfer advice and has also banned contingent charging for defined benefit pension transfers to reduce conflicts of interest. It believes it has reduced the scope for harm.
It added: “The FCA has learned important lessons from the events of BSPS, both for how it operates as a regulator and how the wider pensions regulatory system serves to protect consumers.”
The Complaints Commissioner is an independent body which handles consumer complaints against the FCA.