Tag: Andrew Bailey

THE BOLLOCKS OF OLD BAILEY
I don’t often disagree with highly-regarded pensions expert Henry Tapper. Too much respect and awe. But his recent blog: “The Balls of Old Bailey” (about Andrew Bailey) merits a polite argument. It has made me cross – not cross with Henry, per se. But cross with the failure of Britain’s culture, government, regulation and legal system to address justice justly (or at all).

Henry has questioned the point of revisiting the balls-up made by former FCA CEO Andrew Bailey and has suggested that “we need to move on”.

The point of examining Bailey’s sickening catalogue of balls-ups is that we must make sure it never happens again. Part of that mission is to follow the example of the criminal justice system: we don’t give convicted criminals a jolly good talking to – or even a good bollocking. We take away their liberty and put them in prison. This is called a “deterrent”.

What did Old Bailey do that was so bad? The answer is, indeed, a long list – starting with British Steel, Toby Whittaker’s Park First and Neil Woodford’s Fund, and moving on to London Capital & Finance and a long list of other mini-bond scams – including the Blackmore Bond. Bailey should have stopped that entire horrific catalogue of investment fraud if he’d been doing his job properly. He could – and should – have prevented hundreds of thousands of victims from losing their life savings and pensions in all of those investment scams.

The advantage to be had from putting the bollocks – and preferably the head – of Bailey on the block is to send out a warning to future FCA bosses. They all need to understand that they are public servants, and that with huge salaries come huge responsibilities. Current overpaid bosses Nikhil Rathi, Christopher Woolard and Charles Randall must be reminded that running the FCA is a serious public duty – and not just an easy stepping stone to an even bigger and better job (however badly they fail consumers).

Bailey’s numerous failures were rewarded with an eye-watering salary followed by promotion to governor of the Bank of England.

But Bailey’s balls-up is by no means unique. He’s in good company with a whole raft of over-paid public servants who have betrayed the public:

Post Office boss Paula Vennells was awarded a CBE for falsely prosecuting hundreds of innocent Post Office subpostmasters for fraud – even though she knew full well they were innocent. In arguably the biggest scandal of corruption and injustice in British history, Vennells oversaw the wrongful conviction and sometimes imprisonment of 700 victims. Many of these people were financially ruined, lost their homes and committed suicide. One pregnant woman was sent to jail, and many marriages and families were destroyed.

Former HMRC boss Dave Hartnett was caught arranging “sweetheart” deals with tax evaders such as Goldman Sax and Vodaphone. And now he’s “got no shame” (according to Margaret Hodge) in taking up another over-paid job with Deloittes.

Former HMRC boss Lin Homer was rewarded for her vast catalogue of disasters and failures with another huge salary and a £2.2m pension

Paula Vennells (left), Dave Hartnett (middle), Lin Homer (right)

But to revert to the failings of Andrew Bailey, Henry has suggested that we need to “move on”. However, those who have lost their life savings and pensions because of the FCA’s defects will have great difficulty putting their losses and harrowing ordeals behind them. Living in abject poverty won’t help them forget. They will certainly never forgive the fact that Andrew Bailey could have prevented them becoming victims of investment scams such as mini bonds, Store First, Park First, the Woodford Fund and Blackmore Global etc.

Henry’s blog concludes that Andrew Bailey, as Governor of the Bank of England, has a great deal on his plate: cost of living crisis, looming recession and Brexit. But does anybody seriously think that such a negligent, lazy, incompetent person is capable of dealing with that lot – when he couldn’t even listen to frantic whistleblowers such as Paul Carlier, Mark Taber and Brev at Bond Review who were offering to do his job for him?

In an entirely different blog, however, Henry talks about the sad case of MP Neil Parish:

This silly twerp got caught looking at lewd images on his mobile in the House of Commons. His excuse was that he thought porn was spelled “tractor”. Parish has now resigned and his political career is almost certainly over. His wife might also be quite cross. He probably won’t be rewarded with a promotion, a CBE or any kind of public “moving on”.

What Parish did was foolish. But he didn’t cost thousands of people their pensions and life savings; he didn’t ruin hundreds of subpostmasters’ lives and send some of them to prison or to their deaths; he didn’t aid and abet hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of tax evasion; he didn’t overcharge millions of taxpayers or lose their records.

Parish embarrassed himself and was caught doing something unbelievably silly – that hurt nobody except himself (and his own family). But the price he will pay for this will be crippling and may have ruined his life. Meanwhile, Bailey, Vennells, Hartnet and Homer have evaded any kind of sanction and gone on to glittering success, awards and eye-watering pensions.

Move on? Anybody?
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May 24, 2022
Paul Feeney of Quilter and the Marshmallow Regulator

One of my all-time favourite comedy lines is Greg Davies describing his middle-aged love life as “like trying to stuff a marshmallow up a cat’s arse”. My second-favourite comedy line is “Andrew Bailey has been such a failure at the FCA, that we’re going to put him in charge of the Bank of England”. My third favourite is “the FCA’s practitioner panel is going to be headed up by Paul Feeney of Quilter”.

With the exception of Greg Davies’ somewhat risqué pun, the other two are both true and sickeningly serious.

Victims of the FCA’s multiple failures to take action (despite urgent warnings by courageous whistleblowers) will be horrified at Bailey’s elevation to the “top job” as his reward for betraying so many thousands of investors.

Victims of Quilter (previously Old Mutual International and Skandia) will be appalled that such a pariah of financial services can be held up to be an example to financial services practitioners.

It might, of course, be that I am mistaken – and that Feeney is being brought in as an example of how financial services should NOT be run, and how financial advice should NOT be provided.

But, sadly, I think the “old boys’ network” has worked its magic and the FCA elite have closed ranks with Quilter’s elite, to dominate control over pension and investment scams. It is clear that neither the so-called “City Watchdog” nor the insurance giant – specialising in pointless insurance bonds and toxic investments – want to see financial services cleaned up.

If any financial services consumer is unclear about the FCA’s multiple failures in the matter of the collapsed London Capital & Finance “bond”, they only need to read Bond Review’s piece on the Dame Gloster report. Along with “The FCA told potential investors that LCF was not a fraud, and FSCS protected“, “the FCA took no follow-up action to verify that all LCF’s investors qualified as high-net-worth and sophisticated” and “The FCA consistently treated LCF’s unregulated bonds as not its problem“, Dame Gloster pulls no punches when she outlines the FCA’s many disgraceful and negligent failures.

From Andrew Bailey at the top, to the members of FCA staff who defecated on the men’s bathroom floor at the bottom, Dame Gloster’s report demonstrates that the FCA simply doesn’t understand pension and investment scams. Apparently, an FCA supervisor had admitted that “there is little training on how to identify financial crime within the FCA’s Supervision division”.

Put simply, if the FCA can’t keep its own bathrooms clean, how on earth can it help clean up the crap in the world of financial fraud?

The FCA clearly does not understand that unregulated, high-risk, toxic investments are simply not suitable for ordinary retail investors. And this is why the appointment of Quilter’s Paul Feeney is so anomalous: Quilter has for years specialised in peddling these kinds of high-risk investments to low-risk investors. The graveyards of thousands of Quilter victims’ investment portfolios is littered with the rotting remains of many funds and structured notes.

A regulator’s “Practitioner’s Panel” should ideally be headed up by someone who understands how financial services firms should be run; someone who eschews the fraudulent and disloyal practices of the “cowboys” and “chiringuitos”; someone who has shown the will to outlaw illegally-sold insurance bonds whose sole purpose is to make thousands of victims poor and dozens of scammers rich.

Instead, the FCA’s panel is going to be under the control of someone who has actively promoted high-risk investments to low-risk investors.

So, it would seem there is no hope that the FCA will ever be reformed – just as there is no hope that the top dogs at Quilter will ever brought to justice for facilitating so much financial crime. The two rogue organisations are going to jog along cosily, side by side, with no remorse for their own failures and culpability.

It is hard for pension and investment scam victims to comprehend the apathy towards reform of regulation in the UK. Experts such as Henry Tapper, Mick McAteer, Martin Hague, Paul Carlier and Gina Miller have long banged the “reform” drum. But this has largely fallen on deaf ears. And, of course, Dame Gloster’s report will be largely ignored.

This is all cronyism at its worst. And shows that neither the Treasury nor Parliament truly understand what is so very wrong with financial services in the UK (and also offshore). Select Committees, such as the Work and Pensions one chaired by Stephen Timms, can debate all day long – but until the FCA is scrapped and rogue “wealth” and “life” (in reality, poverty and death) companies like Quilter are shut down, nothing will change.

Dame Gloster has written about the “wickedness” of the FCA’s failures to protect the public (from investment scams such as London Capital & Finance). Part of this evil is the failure to recognise the dangers of unlicensed scammers – the motley assortment of unlicensed “introducers” – both onshore and offshore. But, of course, this is what Quilter’s business is based on – so the appointment of Quilter’s Paul Feeney will only protect and nurture this branch of financial crime.

Quilter has for many years given terms of business to assorted scammers, prostitutes, murderers, fraudsters and conmen (and women). With the acceptance of thousands of investment instructions from these unruly hordes of low-life, unlicensed, unqualified criminals, Quilter has built up a successful and profitable business based on ruining innocent victims’ lives (and killing some of them in the process).

Dame Gloster’s excellent, comprehensive and severely damning report provides almost 500 pages of details of the FCA’s disgraceful failings.

But if you haven’t got time to read it, just read FT Adviser’s one-page article on “Quilter boss Feeney to head up FCA panel”. Then zoom down to the bit that says: “Paul has served on the panel for a number of years and appreciates the important role it plays in ensuring our regulation is targeted and effective.”

Then go and have a good cry. And a packet of marshmallows.

February 5, 2021
Chancellor must dump Andrew Bailey
Dear Mr. Sunak

I write to implore you on behalf of the British population in general; British victims of financial services scams in particular and the financial services industry in the UK, to dump Andrew Bailey as the next governor of the Bank of England. Immediately.

Secondly, I urge you to sort out the FCA, the Pensions Regulator, HMRC, FOS and POS, the Insolvency Service and the police authorities. Limp, ineffective regulation and law enforcement have long been the facilitators of pension and investment scams in Britain. This devastating and highly embarrassing failure on the part of the British government for so many years has got to be addressed – once and for all.

The case of Andrew Bailey’s appointment as governor of the Bank of England is one which demonstrates beyond doubt that both failure and fraud are rewarded in equal measure in the UK. Bailey has single-handedly proved that Britain’s government and authorities care not a jot about the reform of the toxic element of British financial services. Bailey has turned his back on our country; our people; our reputation as a financial services centre which should be the best in the World. Sadly, Britain has now become not just one of the worst in the World, but a laughing stock internationally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBGVB2OWBYc

Those who are laughing loudest are the scammers and fraudsters who have made fortunes – repeatedly for years – out of innocent, hard-working British people. The criminals are still out there, scamming away merrily, while the FCA does nothing. This sends out the message that while petty burglars who steal a few hundred pounds’ worth of goods may get prison sentences, those who steal millions are left free to continue to ply their evil trade and ruin hundreds – sometimes thousands – more innocent lives. And all because neither the FCA nor any other British government agency or law enforcement service is willing or able to bring these filthy criminals to justice.

Your predecessor, Sajid Javid, made one of the biggest bungles in British history by appointing Bailey as the next governor of the BoE and acclaiming him as an “outstanding candidate” in the wake of his years of negligence and outright laziness at the FCA. It is clear that Boris Johnson manoeuvred Javid out of office by insisting he should sack all his political advisers. The fact that not one of them came out publicly to condemn Javid’s appalling judgement, demonstrates their incompetence. And they should never have any place in British government again.

Bailey’s multiple failures have been showcased by many prominent financial services figures. Well-respected True and Fair Foundation’s Gina Millar has publicly shamed the FCA and Bailey’s long-standing record of miserable failure.

https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4011346/gina-miller-calls-chancellor-review-andrew-bailey-appointment-boe

Miller has quite rightly warned that Bailey’s appointment as governor of the BoE would be a gross betrayal of consumers’ interests. She has eloquently described Bailey’s and the FCA’s catalogue of negligence, incompetence and indifference. She has listed the many failures which have resulted in thousands of British citizens losing their life savings:
- M&G Property Fund £2.5bn +
- Woodford EI Fund £1bn +
- London Capital and Finance £236m +
- Dozens of fraudulent investment bonds
- Dozens of fraudulent investment funds
- Dozens of fraudulent banks
- Thousands of victims who have lost a lifetime’s taxed savings and wasted a life of hard, diligent work.
The finance ministry has apparently argued that Britain needs experienced, credible leadership. And it is right. But Bailey is not credible (except with the scammers) and his experience at the FCA is limited to weakening and discrediting financial regulation.

Ask yourself why FCA staff have problems: they have mental health issues; they are demoralised and resentful of their masters; they defecate on the floor; they vandalise the kitchens.

On top of this, the FCA has been fined by the Pensions Regulator for not following regulations, and have wrongfully published complainants’ data on the FCA website. This extensive list of embarrassing and shameful failures cannot be explained away with a wave of Bailey’s grubby hand. The ethical sector of the financial services industry is paying for all this through FSCS levy hikes and vastly increased PII premiums. And the buck stops with the chancellor, Mr. Sunak.

Campaigner Mark Taber – a professional investor – has successfully shown the FCA that their job can, and should, be done relatively easily. All it takes is the will and incentive to do the work. In a matter of weeks, Taber has identified dozens of mini bond scams which are being openly promoted by Google. And the FCA has done nothing. Admittedly, the FCA might be somewhat rudderless while Bailey measures himself for a new suit and Mont Blanc for his new gig at the BoE, but they’ve shown zero interest in the fact that all it takes is for someone to actually care about financial services and for the public to be warned effectively. And further, for these fraudulent mini bonds to be banned and those responsible for promoting them (including Google) to be sanctioned.

Mark Taber https://www.ft.com/content/83485d90-f832-11e2-92f0-00144feabdc0#axzz2bTtvusN4 is doing the FCA’s work for nothing. Because he believes the public have a right to be protected.

Gina Miller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Miller#True_and_Fair_Foundation is trying to protect the public from the failures of the FCA and Andrew Bailey.

Look on Twitter and see the cacophany of financial services professionals – some highly respected and high profile – who are embarrassed by and furious at the FCA’s multiple failures. Ask the thousands of victims of financial scams in Britain and beyond. And ask the loved ones of those who have died due to the FCA’s and Andrew Bailey’s multiple failings. Then ask yourself: do you really think Bailey should be the governor of the Bank of England?

This disgusting mess needs to be sorted out once and for all. The British authorities and government have facilitated – and even encouraged – financial crime for more than a decade: openly and brazenly. And you, Mr. Sunak, are now firmly in the hot seat. I do hope you are wearing neoprene y-fronts – because you are going to need them.

For several years, it has been claimed that there is an alliance called Project Bloom – of which the FCA and tPR are supposedly members. But what has this so-called project achieved? Pension and investment scams are flourishing more successfully than ever, and very few of the fraudsters are behind bars. Still the victims of pension liberation scams are the ones facing penalties from HMRC while the scammers luxuriate in their country mansions and Florida holiday homes, sipping champagne and having a good laugh at the ineptitude of the British authorities.

I will be writing to you openly and publicly over the next few weeks to encourage you to do the right thing. If Bailey’s appointment as governor of the Bank of England goes ahead, it will thoroughly discredit Britain and the British government. Your tenure as chancellor will be recorded in history as starting on a shameful note. Boris Johnson will be remembered as the prime minister who disgraced Britain and destroyed the reputation of Britain’s financial services.

Johnson is already on shaky ground as he promised to help and support some of his constituents who had fallen victim to the Ark pension scam (and has subsequently betrayed them by doing nothing to honour his promises). The action you take next will determine whether you are another betrayer of the interests of consumers, or whether you have the balls to be proactive.

Read Henry Tapper’s wonderful blogs:

Ever wondered where those “pension leads” come from?

Talk to some victims who’ve had the courage to take their case to a Spanish criminal court: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-8044237/Victims-rogue-pensions-scandal-fight-courts.html

Talk to Dalriada Trustees who are custodians of more than 30 scam pension schemes (but who don’t think it is their remit to report the perps to the police or initiate private criminal prosecutions). Ask them how many of the schemes promoted and run by Stephen Ward and Peter Moat (since 2011) they now have under their control: https://www.fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/1-stop-fast-pensions/

Go onto the Blackmore Bond and Global Fund Facebook Group and read the anguish of the betrayed lenders/investors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/498072800835888/

But most important of all, go onto the Smith and Williamson website and read about what the FCA can do if it puts its mind to it: https://smithandwilliamson.com/en/services/restructuring-and-recovery-services/park-first/

Having known about the high-profile Store First matter in 2014, the FCA is only now taking regulatory action against Park First more than five years later. The funds of the 6,000 Park First investors have now been used to pay several £ millions in fees to Smith and Williamson and their lawyers Mishcon de Reya and Park First’s lawyers Paul Hastings. And all because five years after the event, the FCA decided Park First was a collective scheme. Five years after 6,000 people have invested in the scheme.

But Park First exists. The car parks exist. And they are making money. The FCA could have gone to the airports where the Park First car parks are operating. Andrew Bailey could have driven his (undoubtedly luxurious) car into the Park First car parks and actually stood on the tarmac and watched the thousands of other car park users doing the same.

Then Bailey could have asked what were the assets of Woodford, M&G Property, LC&F, Blackmore Bond and Blackmore Global Fund. And he could have done the maths. But, of course, he didn’t bother.

Mr. Sunak – you can be a hero or a disgusting disgrace. You choose.

Regards, Angela Brooks – Pension Life
March 3, 2020
A Tale of Two Investments

“Best of times. Worst of times. Age of wisdom and foolishness. Epoch of belief and incredulity. Season of light and darkness. Spring of hope; winter of despair.”

You would be forgiven for thinking the above was written about the world of pensions and investments (by someone far more eloquent than me). However, it was written by the mighty Charles Dickens on the subject of the French Revolution in the late 1700s.

There are strong parallels between both events: in the French Revolution, many thousands of lives were destroyed and society broken down in an era when turmoil and terror reigned. Since 2010 in the UK and offshore, a similar breakdown in the stability of society has taken place – with even more lives being destroyed.

Investment abuse.

Investment abuse is one of the biggest causes of darkness and despair in modern times. Thousands of victims are seeing their life savings put at risk every year – the causes range from outright fraud and mis-selling to negligence and greed (on the part of advisers, introducers and promoters). But what makes this abuse even more sinister, is that the FCA does nothing to help. And, even worse, sometimes it does something to hinder.

Regulators in the UK and offshore do nothing to help. But sometimes they do something to hinder. Unnecessarily.

Let’s compare two investments which have been in the spotlight in 2019: MANAGED FUNDS and AIRPORT CAR PARKS.

Citywire’s Bottom Performers Chart for 2019

In the case of the former, the FCA’s track record is appalling – it was slow and did nothing in the case of two funds: Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund and Mark Barnett’s Invesco funds. As a result, more than 300,000 investors face suspension of the funds – so they can’t get their money out, and will suffer inevitable heavy losses when they can.

In the case of the latter, the FCA has taken two lots of contradictory actions – it agreed a restructuring of Toby Whittaker’s Park First in 2017, then in 2019 it reneged on the agreement and forced the company into administration. Investors – somewhat understandably – believe that Whittaker has failed to make payments he agreed to make back in 2017. However, in reality it is the FCA which has prevented him from doing so as a result of disruptive and contradictory regulatory action.

Both sets of investments had their own strengths and weaknesses. There’s no such thing as the perfect investment and all investments carry a degree of risk. The problem lay with the promotion of the investments.

In the case of the Woodford Equity Income fund, there was Hargreaves Lansdown promoting it heavily – right up until immediately before the fund was suspended. One Trust Pilot reviewer said: “H and L are always pushing funds (presumably because you get commissions etc) but you were made to look devious over WOODFORD, so I think impartiality has to be addressed with regards to FUNDS”. Another reports liquidity issues: “Fabulous while you are investing with them. But try to get your money out – that’s a different matter. Still waiting for them to transfer my funds after 3 months. The delay is totally unacceptable.” A third reviewer is even more disgusted: “Another Woodford/Lansdown victim left nursing losses due to taking on board their advice. This wasnt just a case of poor performance, this was a former reputable company using its name to push an income fund heavily invested in illiquid stocks up to the point of it folding, a move that has cost investors millions. An untrustworthy company with lots of questions to answer.”

In the case of Park First, there were large numbers of advisers all over the World who advised their clients to put too much of their money into the investment. A more prudent approach would have been to spread the money over a variety of different assets (and avoid the “eggs in one basket” syndrome). It is also clear that these same advisers have often encouraged their clients to blame Park First’s Toby Whittaker for the current uncertainty in the run up to the creditors’ vote for the administration scheduled for 25th November 2019. The reality is that the advisers and the FCA have a lot of blame to shoulder. There’s nothing wrong with the car parks themselves: the planes are still flying (with the exception of Thomas Cook); the passengers are still driving their cars to the airport; the car parks are still doing a roaring trade. And this is set to continue unabated for years to come.

Investors in both the managed investment funds (Woodford and Invesco) are rightly peeved – their investments have not performed well; and they didn’t understand the degrees of liquidity, diversity and risk. It is now a matter of public record that both Woodford and Barnett suffered from the same syndrome: they were legends in their own lunchboxes. They took unacceptable risks – gambling with investors’ life savings; throwing caution and prudence to the winds.

Having successfully strayed into high-risk strategies in the past, they thought they would always be so lucky. But their luck ran out. Now they are having to unload the worst of the illiquid, risky stuff (crap) and are advertising: “Please will somebody (anybody) buy our unlisted shares – we desperately need the cash. We thought they were under valued. Seems we were wrong. Any takers? We’re in a bit of a hurry!”

Not exactly a position of strength from which to bargain. Neither of them will have a future in anything to do with investments other than perhaps serving as a reminder that: “past performance may not be indicative of future results”!

By comparison, Toby Whittaker’s Park First looks a much better bet. The only things that could possibly go wrong are that Glasgow, Gatwick and Luton airports get shut down, or that Elon Musk will invent a Tesla that will drive itself home alone from the airport.

The good thing about Park First is that it is a tangible, known, concrete (tarmac) asset. The car parks exist and are in no way speculative – there’s a proven and growing market for the car parks. There are no bad debts (nobody ever says “sorry I can’t pay – can I have 90 days please?”). Personally, I would never use a Park First airport car park – but only because I don’t have a driving license or a car. And even if I did, I live in Spain.

So, from investment funds and bonds, to airport car parks, the real problem seems to be who promotes them and what the regulator does (or doesn’t do) when it looks like things aren’t going to plan. The FCA first investigated the Woodford fund’s performance three years ago – but took no action (despite clear evidence that Woodford was investing heavily in “hard-to-value, unlisted, illiquid assets”). The most that Andrew Bailey could bring himself to say at the time was that he felt “uncomfortable”.

So no evidence of anything more serious than wearing his Y-fronts back to front.

The Woodford fund is now being liquidated by Link Fund Solutions – and the investors have no say in the future of their investments. It will be a “fire sale” – with the liquidator getting first dibs on the cash. The investors – as is always the case – will be at the back of the queue.

Park First investors are in a better position, as the administrator is Finbarr O’Connell of Smith and Williamson. A licensed insolvency practitioner and chartered accountant, Finbarr has been involved in restructuring and insolvency assignments for the last 33 years and is a past president of the Insolvency Practitioners’ Association. He engaged enthusiastically with investors at the creditors’ meeting in London on 1st October, and will be in the chair again on 25th November. He is offering investors a wide range of options in order to either get their money back or see their investment in safe hands and producing healthy returns.

Finbarr is also joint administrator of London Capital & Finance which has seen 11,600 investors dismayed at the collapsed of this ultra-high-risk “mini bond”. In March 2019, there were four arrests made by the Serious Fraud Office in connection with this case – and the man behind Surge Group (Paul Careless) was also arrested for promoting it. London Capital & Finance shows the extreme end of investing: outright fraud. Neither the Woodford fund nor Park First are – or ever were – frauds. However, they were both undoubtedly widely mis-sold.

While the Woodford investors have no voice in the liquidation of the Woodford fund, at least Park First investors have a vote – and the chance to avoid liquidation.

November 10, 2019
Protest 6th November against FCA failures

There is no question: Andrew Bailey has failed; he must go – the FCA has failed; it must be replaced by a proper regulator.

Wednesday 6th November will see victims of failed investments – repeatedly promoted by negligent or fraudulent “advisers” or brokers – protesting outside the Bank of England from 8.30 a.m. onwards. Hopefully this will make the government wake up, stop messing about with the Brexit debacle, and take some useful action to reform financial services in the UK.

As things stand, the UK is a national disgrace: we have a feeble regulator headed up by an embarrassing and expensive failure: Andrew Bailey. His only interest seems to be his candidacy to replace Mark Carney at the Bank of England. God help Britain if Bailey gets the job – we’d all be doomed and our country would sink.

Look at the disgusting list of failures by Andrew Bailey and the FCA: Woodford; London Capital & Finance; RBS and many more including those highlighted by Bond Review.

Bailey and the FCA are guilty of a lot more than just failure. The FT has reported: Politicians condemned as a “complete whitewash” a long-awaited report by the UK’s financial regulator over why it failed to take action against the Royal Bank of Scotland over its disgraced restructuring unit.

A year ago, the FT’s journalist Alan Miller wrote: ” I believe that the FCA’s own culture and governance fails the test on consumer protection, integrity and competition — all statutory objectives.” Miller goes on to write: “A judge that cannot be bothered to listen to arguments or evidence is not fit to be a judge.”

The press; the industry; the public all say the same. Evidence shows the FCA has failed repeatedly for years – and there ‘s no sign of this changing. There has to be a root-and-branch reform: starting with the immediate removal of Andrew Bailey.

I hope as many betrayed investors and the press will turn up and make their voice heard.

November 3, 2019
FCA boss £589,000 – Whistleblowing team £500,000
THE DIZZEE RASCALS AT THE FCA:

My exasperation and disgust at the FCA’s incompetence has for years been very profound. However, learning that Andrew Bailey – CEO of the FCA – gets paid 18% more than the whole whistleblowing team of 12, has made me feel two things:

Enormous respect for the gentlemanly and (IMHO) restrained manner in which Henry Tapper has written his blog about the FCA and Debbie Gupta. The latter is blaming IFAs for “failures to call out bad practice” and claims her “view of the industry is not as positive as it could be”.

Sick

DEBBIE GUPTA – FCA’S CO-DIRECTOR OF LIFE INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL ADVICE SUPERVISION

I have never come across Debbie Gupta before. I am wondering what planet she has been on for the past six years. Victims, concerned members of the financial services industry and I have literally been hammering at the FCA’s door repeatedly. And all we have to show for it are red knuckles and chipped teeth from excessive gnashing.

In his blog, Henry quite rightly points out that “The spirit of collaboration will win, confrontation won’t.” It is a well-known fact that one wins more battles with honey than with vinegar. But two terrible wrongs have to be righted: Gupta must learn not to spout utter garbage that she knows nothing about. And Andrew Bailey must be sacked.

Let us be clear: the FCA is an embarrassment to Britain.

The cost of the FCA’s many failures is borne by IFAs in terms of levies to the FSCS as well as soaring professional indemnity insurance premiums. And the thousands of victims whose lives have been destroyed by fraudsters operating under the very nose of the FCA.

Before Debbie Gupta sticks her big foot in her mouth any further, I would suggest she attempts to learn something about scams, scammers and scamees. She should come and spend a week with me. Sit up until midnight talking distraught victims out of suicide a couple of times. She should go to Port Talbot with Al Rush and talk to some steelworkers and hear their tragic stories for herself.

Finally, Gupta should take a long hard look at the number of FCA-registered firms that have facilitated or committed financial crime. And then she should not just take back her ill-conceived words, but apologise for the profound disrespect and contempt she has shown the British advisory profession.

I have experienced at first hand how difficult (impossible) it is to get through to the FCA. Last year, I wrote a blog about my last visit. I wonder what more I could have done to “collaborate” with somebody – anybody – at their magnificent offices. I came pretty close to taking all my clothes off and singing “Bonkers” by Dizzee Rascal while shaving my head and reading Tolley’s Pensions Taxation. But still the FCA refused to speak to me. Even the guy in the post room made it clear I was a blooming nuisance when I handed in my whistleblowing report. (Which was, of course, ignored – and probably shredded).

The FCA needs to do a number of things to become an effective regulator – and none of them is particularly difficult or challenging:

Stop paying ridiculous, offensively-high salaries to no-hoper executives like Andrew Bailey. Bailey has shown he has neither the inclination nor the ability to run a regulatory authority. Throwing away nearly £600k a year on such a failure isn’t going to make him want to change and start doing a bit of regulating from time to time. Bailey is laughing all the way to the bank as he sits in his luxurious office and does SFA at the FCA. At the industry’s and public’s expense.

Buy some ladders. Window cleaners known how to use them – so I’m sure the nitwits at the FCA could try to copy them. The fat, low-hanging fruit only account for a tiny percentage of the offenders – all the really bad guys are at the top of the tree.

Take action against FCA-registered scammers. One appalling example is Gerard Associates which helped Stephen Ward scam 100 victims out of their pensions in 2014 and into toxic, high-risk, high-commission investments such as imaginary eucalyptus plantations. The scam, London Quantum, was masterminded by Ward and used to ruin dozens of victims – including a police officer. Gerard Associates provided the FCA-regulated advice. And remains FCA authorised to this day (even though it is in liquidation).

Buy a bunch of hearing aids. And listen to people. To IFAs and the industry in the UK and offshore; to the public; to me.

Take part in Andy Agathangelou’s monthly Scams and Scandals conference call – and learn a huge amount from experts and victims alike.

Update the FCA’s Whistleblowing section on the website. It is three years out of date. Reach out and invite the industry and the public to report suspicious activity – make it easy for people who take the time to stick their necks out. Welcome them with open arms and show them you care. And actually do something about the whistleblowing reports (don’t just shred them like they did with mine).

Demote Debbie Gupta to Junior on the Whistleblowing team – and pay her £41k a year like the other 12. Make her learn what this industry is really about. And teach her to keep her mouth shut until she begins to understand the seriousness of what she is talking about. Once she has learned some sense and memorised the immortal words of Dizzee Rascal: “Everybody says I got to get a grip, but I let sanity give me the slip”. She might then be ready to do a bit of regulating.

All the above will save the FCA nearly three quarters of a million pounds a year.

It will only cost a couple of hundred quid for a few dozen hearing aids and ladders. Andy Agathangelou and his team will give their advice for free. I know several dozen victims who will happily help out. By getting rid of the dross at the FCA, and providing just a bit of training for staff in the reception area and post room (as well as all the way up to the board room). It should be possible to turn this embarrassing, limp failure into something half decent.

I do hope the FCA will like some of my above ideas – after all “There’s nothing crazy ’bout me”.
April 8, 2019