Recommendation 18

The FCA’s response to the BSPS case highlights wider issues within its regulatory approach. Alongside the estimated 369 firms and advisers that provided unsuitable advice to BSPS members, the FCA found that 17% of DB transfer advice was unsuitable within the wider market. This is a significant proportion of non-compliance, especially when compared to the 4% unsuitability rate for other advice sectors.58 Based on the level of unsuitability found, thousands more consumers are likely to have been mis-sold DB pension transfer advice from 2015–2021 and are due compensation. When we questioned the FCA on its plans to contact and support these consumers, it failed to provide details of its approach and merely stated its general consumer protection duty.59 Confused regulatory expectations