Santander makes £43m provision for investment advice claims

Follows fines for advice failings

Santander has set aside £43m to cover claims relating to the sale of wealth and investment products after the bank was fined by the regulator for advice failings.

The bank confirmed it had made the provision in its third quarter results, published on 29 October. The results also showed a 40% increase in pre-tax profits year on year to £1.4bn. Santander scaled back its investment advice service for the majority of customers when the Retail Distribution Review banned commission-based sales from 2013, but last month it hinted at a re-entry into advice. Santander was fined £12.4m by the Financial Conduct Authority in March 2014 for what it said were "widespread" investment advice failings. The fine followed a 13-month probe by the regulator, ...