Domestic insurers HomeServe fined £30m in mis-selling scandal
Home repairs and domestic insurance group HomeServe is to pay a record £30.6million fine for a series of failings surrounding a mis-selling scandal.
It is the largest retail penalty imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which said it had found “serious, systemic and long-running failings” at the company.
Between 2005 and 2011 the company mis-sold insurance policies, failed to investigate complaints adequately and its board did not pay enough attention to compliance, said the FCA.
As well as the fine, HomeServe has paid £12.9million to affected customers, with £3.9million still to come.
FCA director Tracey McDermott said: “HomeServe promises to provide customers with peace of mind when things go wrong. In fact the firm’s culture, controls and remuneration structures meant that staff were focused on quantity not quality and some customers paid the price.”
Company chief executive Richard Harpin said: “We sincerely regret that some customers have been affected by these issues.”
The business had since been transformed, management strengthened and staff retrained, he added.
