FSA to issue first 'health alert' product warning soon

The FSA is set to publish its first "health alert" shortly to warn about risky financial products, in a bid to halt the stream of mis-selling scandals.

Alerts to firms as well as to consumers will be public and financial lawyers are already warning clients the regulator is keen to make an example of a company. "I expect us to start issuing warnings soon," Margaret Cole, FSA interim managing director of business conduct, told Reuters. Cole said she was not going to wait for anticipated tougher consumer protection powers from Britain or the European Union over the next two to three years to introduce its "product intervention" blueprint. The crackdown has already begun, she said. "We have been asking for minutes of product approv...