Royal Liver Group faces 7.8m remuneration bill

Patrick Hosking, Financial Editor & , : {}

The Royal Liver word organisation is to recompense up to �7.8 million to recompense thousands of business who were sole unsuited pensions or investment products.

The mutual insurer concluded to account the remuneration intrigue after the Financial Services Authority found a catalog of failings at Park Row Associates, the eccentric monetary adviser. These enclosed advisers putting the volume of commission they would consequence on top of anticipating the majority suitable product for the customer.

Peter Sprung, a former Royal Liver comparison manager who stepped down as Park Rows arch comparison manager last month, was fined �49,000 and contingency not to work in a comparison on all sides in monetary services for five years. The FSA pronounced that Park Row would have been fined �2.4 million but for the actuality that it had no income and was being wound down. The remuneration check is expected to be in between �5 million and �7.8 million.

Park Rows 535 monetary advisers done 37,400 sales of regulated products to 23,700 clients from Jan 2007 to Jan 2009. Pension switches, investment bonds, structured products and movie partnerships were sold. The FSA found countless failings in systems and correspondence that Park Row did not address.

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The FSA has allocated outward experts to inspect Park Rows sales, settle if and where mis-selling has occurred and set compensation.

Royal Liver paid for Park Row in 2003 for �16.7 million. It had emerged from the remains of Birchin International, a prime of sell investors in the dot-com boom. Royal Liver was fined �550,000 in 2006 for mis-selling with-profits assets products.

The excellent is the eleventh done by the FSA this year. Royal Liver said: For any beating or nuisance to business of Park Row, we apologise.

• Overseas fraudsters are impersonating bona fide City firms to con people in to shopping meaningless investments, the FSA said. It has seen a tenfold climb in complaints about this wake up recently.