FSA uncovers poor bank investment advice after mystery shop

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has uncovered evidence of incompetency among investment advisers at a number of banks and building societies - resulting in unsuitable advice in some cases - following a mystery shopping exercise.

The regulator, conducting its first mystery shop since a similar exercise into payment protection insurance sales five years ago, carried out a total of 231 visits to six major retail banks. While about three quarters of customers received good advice, the FSA said, there was evidence of mis-selling. In particular, in 11% of its mystery shops, the evidence suggested the adviser gave the customer unsuitable advice. In 15% of visits, the FSA said it found examples of advisers failing to gather enough information from the customer to ensure the advice was suitable. In 15% of mystery s...