Exclusive: How the FSA walked by rogue broker three years before its collapse

yet again the FSA has been found wanting.

They probably get paid very handsomely for doing a totally inadequate job, and they don't deserve to remain in business as an authority .

"Low impact" meaning it's only small fry that's going to suffer as per usual. The FSA has never looked after the small investor and has time after time ignored pleas from small investors who have been robbed of their life savings.

In one instance an AIM listed company was issuing false statements to the market about it's product sales, resulting revenues and profit forecasts. Despite this the share price kept falling and a number of investors approached the FSA voicing their concern. Just got fobbed off with a load of gobbledy gook.

The company in question eventually lost it's listing and the directors have scarpered. One even had the audacity to try and get the company wound up because it owed him salary..yet he was the main culprit in all of this.

More than a year has gone by and what has been done by the FSA...absolutely nothing.

One director is now in Australia pleading poverty despite creaming £600k a year in salary and another is sitting pretty with RBS trying to attract small firms and talking about transparency!!

I only lost £30k so that counts as small fry.

The FSA does not look after investors, it looks after the brokers etc, as I have found out where a broker gave wrong advice which would have benefited him and stock brokers and an insurer, charging 1.5% per annum on the value of a pension pot, rather than draw down and minimal annual fee.

That route will have depleted the annual income by nearly 50% each year.

No, the FSA is unfit for purpose and and staffed by morons along for the ride.

Wills & Co was a joke a decade and more ago when I worked at the wonderfully named Small Company Investor (it left your bank balance smaller.) And it remained a joke for the subsequent years until it went down.

Now, if a mere journalist knew it was a pile of poo, then how did this escape the regulators (on their super high salaries). The FSA does stable door shutting very well but what else??

The sooner it is shut down the better. And any new regulator should refuse to hire anyone with FSA on their CV as they are infected with the FSA attitudes your other comments make clear.

I - and most Citywire readers and bimost financial journalists - could have made a far better job of consumer protection.

And as for the Consumer Panel - even bigger joke (if possible)

Except these jokes are not funny for the victims.

Wills & co asked me to join them, but after checks/comparisons decided not to bother.

One of my better decisions I am sure.

I agree wholeheartedly with Tony Levene's assessment of Wills & Co and the length of time (ten years at the very least) for which it was clear - even to a green amateur like me - they were an outfit to avoid.

Once again the FSA has proved itself to be useless.

If you closed the FSA and gave the job to a dozen people of average intelligence you would get a much better job.

Rogue Broker ??

THE FACTS ARE that Wills was closed by the FSA because of 19 calls ! Ernst and Young who were commissioned by Wills to look at ALL selling practices did not agree with the FSA's assesment of those calls !

Wills client accounts were reconcillled to the penny (yes the penny) Nothing was stolen. Nothing was mislaid. So crap headline !

After 2007 and new directors employed and old ones moved on (inc. Compliance) Wills became a significant main market broker. Yes it traded small Caps but they were researched independantly by an In house specialist analyst with at least 25 years experience.

However the amount of complaints that it was dealing with because of trading prior to the change of management became too much for it to reconcile.

It may be worth noting for your readers Wills employees helped the FSCS in declaring Wills in default for the benifit of those clients who had complained.

BUT there is a massive issue about small Caps and private investment that does need addressing and maybe CityWire should use its influence to ensure there is a methodology that IF a client wishes to invest in small Cap stock they understand the risk. That must not be left to a broker. I favour catagorising high risk stock as Casino stock and offer a mandatory 24 hour cooling off period ANDare advised that it falls outside of the Compensation scheme for it seems to me that the comensation scheme could be seen as an investor underwriter. DEBATE and changes in investing NEED to happen. The economy needs private investment in Small Cap so we need to address the issue front on.

The FSA now determine that ALL stock needs to be sold as a pension is. This is clearly wrong. Regulation of firms that offer Investment in stocks and sharers is COMPLETELY different to that of the IFA market and therein lays the FSA dillema of one regulator fits all !!

BUT don't lambast the FSA employees. It is not them but the system that needs correction. But it does need URGENT correction.

AND REMEMBER The FSA considered Wills Low risk because it knew the Directors were not about to run off with client money, and they were proven correct. As you will note from its final decision the Directors are criticised for those 19 calls and believing that they had put things right after 2007 and handling of the complaints. Hands Up ! I will be interested to see if the FSCS uphold any complaints after the new Directors had made their considerable changes to selling practices. Only the you will know whether Margaret Cole's comments were a soundbite of a regulator under fire.

Almost all the Wills employees from 2007 onwards still work in the City and that I suppose say's it all !

AND REMEMBER unlike other firms in this position WE have not run away and hidden. We am here and wiling to answer and correct any article and to try and use this terrible experience for clients and employee's alike to learn and improve the market..

Wills completely lacked integrity in selling as too slowly it dawned on me after losing more than I care to admit - to myself let alone wife! So Wills and their like and the incompetent FSA have damaged the City. Of course all brokers - until integrity established beyond doubt - need to be viewd as 'the competition., But has'nt the honesty/integrity problem got worse everywhere or is it I'm deluded and just see the 50's as a golden age!?

Do leopards ever change their spots? Mr Shakeshaft, Mr Holgate were both associated with or directors of Vantage Financial Management, of Horsham, another of their companies dealing expressly with "penny" shares which was also closed down by the then regulators. It will come as no surprise when they appear again in some other guise. FSA take notice