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Tel. 020 7066 9378
Our Ref. FOI1245
Dear Mr Keirman
Freedom of Information: Right to know request
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), for the following information:
“ 1. How many complaints have been received, with regards to breaches of the FSA Waiver, since July 2007?(I would appreciate if you could break that down ie monthly/quarterly)
2. What areas of the FSA Waiver did the complaints relate to? I would appreciate a general breakdown ie enforcement issues, financial hardship exemption, etc,etc,
3. How does the FSA deal with complaints of this nature?
4. Have any complaints been upheld and what action did the FSA take to remedy it? “
We have answered points 1 and 2 as Freedom of Information requests and points 3 and 4 as queries, these last two points have not been processed under the Act.
The Act requires us to comply with a request, unless it would be too expensive to do so, as estimated in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 made by the Department of Constitutional Affairs (now Ministry of Justice). The regulations provide that, for the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the cost limit is £450 i.e. 18 hours at the rate of £25 per person per hour. The regulations allow us to take into account when estimating the cost of complying with a request, time spent determining whether we hold the information requested; locating and retrieving it and extracting the information from the relevant document(s).
In this case we are not able to provide you with the information you have requested in relation to points 1 and 2. The information for these two points is held in each supervisory area and is not recorded centrally, this would mean searching through all the relevant files in each area to collate the information and provide it to you. We estimate we would be unable to do this within the cost limit as described above.
As the information you have requested is spread across these files, in order to answer your request, we would need to review and assess all of these files. On that basis, we estimate that the cost of retrieving the information you have requested, and editing it to take out irrelevant information would exceed the £450 limit. As our policy is not to divert our resources from our regulatory functions in order to meet requests under the Act in excess of the cost limit, we will not carry out an exercise to identify the information you have requested.
In relation to points 3 and 4 of your request and as you may be aware, the FSA does not make rulings on individual complaints between consumers and regulated firms. This is the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FSA and the FOS are two separate organisations and the FOS is independent of the FSA and was set up specifically to deal with a range of financial complaints between consumers and firms.
It might assist if I set out the FSA’s general approach where we receive information from various parties in relation to regulated firms. Whether we follow up any information received will depend upon the risks posed to our objectives, the quality of the evidence and the seriousness of the accusations. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) imposes restrictions on how we can deal with confidential information that we receive. Should we, following due process, take disciplinary action against a firm or individual and impose a sanction, it is our standard practice to issue a press notice. FSMA limits our ability to disclose information which we receive from the firms we regulate and our freedom to criticise firms, unless we have followed the due process referred to above. So our policy and practice is, except in exceptional circumstances, neither to confirm nor deny that we are investigating particular firms or individuals and not generally to comment on discussions we are having with individual firms.
Although, we do not arbitrate between consumers and firms, we may for example take forward a thematic review based in part on information we may have received.
If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request, you have the right to request an internal review. Should you wish to exercise your right to an internal review, please do so within three months of the date of this email.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
Website: www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Sherine Malko (Ms)
Sherine Malko
Financial Services Authority
Associate - Information Access
Our Ref. FOI1245
Dear Mr Keirman
Freedom of Information: Right to know request
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), for the following information:
“ 1. How many complaints have been received, with regards to breaches of the FSA Waiver, since July 2007?(I would appreciate if you could break that down ie monthly/quarterly)
2. What areas of the FSA Waiver did the complaints relate to? I would appreciate a general breakdown ie enforcement issues, financial hardship exemption, etc,etc,
3. How does the FSA deal with complaints of this nature?
4. Have any complaints been upheld and what action did the FSA take to remedy it? “
We have answered points 1 and 2 as Freedom of Information requests and points 3 and 4 as queries, these last two points have not been processed under the Act.
The Act requires us to comply with a request, unless it would be too expensive to do so, as estimated in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 made by the Department of Constitutional Affairs (now Ministry of Justice). The regulations provide that, for the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the cost limit is £450 i.e. 18 hours at the rate of £25 per person per hour. The regulations allow us to take into account when estimating the cost of complying with a request, time spent determining whether we hold the information requested; locating and retrieving it and extracting the information from the relevant document(s).
In this case we are not able to provide you with the information you have requested in relation to points 1 and 2. The information for these two points is held in each supervisory area and is not recorded centrally, this would mean searching through all the relevant files in each area to collate the information and provide it to you. We estimate we would be unable to do this within the cost limit as described above.
As the information you have requested is spread across these files, in order to answer your request, we would need to review and assess all of these files. On that basis, we estimate that the cost of retrieving the information you have requested, and editing it to take out irrelevant information would exceed the £450 limit. As our policy is not to divert our resources from our regulatory functions in order to meet requests under the Act in excess of the cost limit, we will not carry out an exercise to identify the information you have requested.
In relation to points 3 and 4 of your request and as you may be aware, the FSA does not make rulings on individual complaints between consumers and regulated firms. This is the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FSA and the FOS are two separate organisations and the FOS is independent of the FSA and was set up specifically to deal with a range of financial complaints between consumers and firms.
It might assist if I set out the FSA’s general approach where we receive information from various parties in relation to regulated firms. Whether we follow up any information received will depend upon the risks posed to our objectives, the quality of the evidence and the seriousness of the accusations. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) imposes restrictions on how we can deal with confidential information that we receive. Should we, following due process, take disciplinary action against a firm or individual and impose a sanction, it is our standard practice to issue a press notice. FSMA limits our ability to disclose information which we receive from the firms we regulate and our freedom to criticise firms, unless we have followed the due process referred to above. So our policy and practice is, except in exceptional circumstances, neither to confirm nor deny that we are investigating particular firms or individuals and not generally to comment on discussions we are having with individual firms.
Although, we do not arbitrate between consumers and firms, we may for example take forward a thematic review based in part on information we may have received.
If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request, you have the right to request an internal review. Should you wish to exercise your right to an internal review, please do so within three months of the date of this email.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
Website: www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Sherine Malko (Ms)
Sherine Malko
Financial Services Authority
Associate - Information Access
