According to FSA, between July 2007 and October 2009, BOS received 2,592 complaints about its sales of the Collective Investment Plan, Personal Investment Plan, Guaranteed Growth Bond, ISA Investor and Guaranteed Investment Plan. BOS wrongly rejected a significant number of these complaints.
An internal review by BOS on a sample of rejected complaints revealed that as many as 45% of the complaints it had handled should have been upheld rather than rejected.
To date, BOS has paid £2.4m in compensation to customers whose complaint was upheld following its own internal review.
It is expected that further compensation of around £15m will be paid to customers once the further reviews have been completed.
FSA acting director of enforcement and financial crime Tracey McDermott said this fine reflects BOS’s serious failure to treat vulnerable customers fairly. The firm’s failure to ensure it had a robust complaint handling process in place led to a significant number of complaints being rejected when they should have been upheld.
