FCA media blunder: Staff warned regulator not to brief journalist

A Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) decision to brief a national newspaper on its plans to review long-term insurance contracts - which prompted significant falls in the share prices of several major providers - was "high risk" and inadequate, according to an independent report by a law firm.

Clifford Chance partner Simon Davis, appointed by the regulator in April to review its handling of the affair, described the FCA's actions as well-intentioned but ultimately "high risk, poorly supervised and inadequately controlled". When it went wrong, the regulator's reaction was "seriously inadequate and fell short of the standards it expects of those it regulates," the Davis report found. In March, FCA director of long-term savings and investments Nick Poyntz-Wright briefed a Telegraph journalist on details of its soon-to-be-announced supervisory probe into the treatment of "long-...