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The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Financial Ombudsman Service (the Ombudsman) have jointly concluded that Lehman Brothers' insolvency raises issues in the UK structured products market. As a result, while the Ombudsman has been investigating a number of individual complaints, the FSA has been actively looking at the wider issues raised in this market.
The FSA and Ombudsman have agreed that the regulatory options available to the FSA would be one way of reducing consumer detriment, as well as potentially being able to deal with the concerns of more consumers than those who have complained to the Ombudsman.
Therefore, they have agreed that the FSA will now consider issues relating to Lehman-backed structured products under the "wider implications" process 1., in order to allow the FSA to explore all options to achieve the best outcome for consumers.
Additional information can be found on the Wider Implications website: www.widerimplications.info
1. The wider implications process is intended to provide a transparent means of bridging potential regulatory gaps or overlaps between the FSA, Ombudsman and Office of Fair Trading on 'significant issues', including those that may give rise to widespread consumer detriment.
