Legal & General have won a partial victory in their "mis-selling" case. They were accused of mis-selling endowment mortgages in the late 1990's by the Financial Services Authority, in a hearing by the world's most powerful financial services regulator, the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, that has lasted six weeks, and has cost an estimated £5 million.
Of the 60 cases the FSA had treated of mis-selling, only 8 were proven, a further 14 were considered by the tribunal to be potential cases of mis-selling, 25 were considered too unclear to decide and the remaining 13 were seen as unlikely to have been mis-sold. In their 99-page judgement, the tribunal have suggested that the FSA had exaggerated the extent of the problem, and questioned the way they had investigated claims of mis-selling policies.
A fine of £1.1 million has been imposed on Legal & General, which will be dealt with in a further hearing.
Our view
Rather not go there - this is a battle between two Titans.