After last week’s yo-yoing share prices, the anger has not abated. What timing that the FCA should ask for a greater contribution from the companies it regulates so soon after its own briefings created a false market in their stock.
It’s not surprising the insurers in particular are feeling bruised so soon after the Chancellor blew open the annuities market that has sustained them for so long.
And schadenfreude is bound to accompany any slip by a regulator which, one year in, is just warming up — as seen in these pages recently when boss Martin Wheatley called on investors to force banks to clamp down on excessive bonuses.
But expecting Wheatley to fall on his sword for this incident is misplaced. Maybe banks and insurers should trust the FCA when it says it will never happen again.
It is exactly what they have told the regulator on numerous occasions when they have been found guilty of mis-selling and market rigging.
