Firms distributing 'payment protection' products - such as short-term income protection - must ensure salespeople do not have inappropriate incentives to sell them, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has stressed in new guidance.
The regulator, in guidance published in conjunction with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), has set out requirements both for the providers designing the products and the distributors - mainly banks and intermediaries - selling them. Among its recommendations is that providers clearly state whether a new product is one where customers would be wise to seek financial advice. The FSA identifies payment protection products as those which offer individual consumers short-term protection against potential loss of income. It said the guidance was necessary to prevent the problems associat...
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