In a report covered by industry newspaper, Financial Adviser, banks and building society organisations appear to have fallen out with the industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
In simple terms, the FSA plans to make public certain letters that it issues to the Chief Executive Officers of such firms. This is not too popular as you imagine with financial companies demanding privacy.
Our view
Tough call. It is understandable that Banks & Building Societies do not want correspondence to them from the regulator made public, particularly when on many occassions it may be warnings or fines or other sensitive, market influencing information.
However, many Banks & Building Societies control such a huge part of the financial market - it goes even further than you might imagine - if you think about things like Lloyds TSB owning Scottish Widows, Halifax/Bank os Scotland (HBOS) owning Clerical Medical and Abbey (Abbey National) owning Scottish Mutual, Scottish Provident and Pegasus. Some companies have far and widespread influence.
The fact is that bigger players really do control such a huge section of the financial market and if they are not adhering to rules - then significant parts of the population may be affected.
After all, the FSA does have a duty to protect the consumer!