The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined the Prudential Assurance Company Limited (Prudential) £23,875,000 for failures related to non-advised sales of annuities.
Between July 2008 and September 2017, Prudential’s non-advised annuity business focused on selling annuities directly to existing Prudential pension holders. Firms are required to explain to customers that they may get a better rate if they look for comparable products on the open market and Prudential was aware that many customers could get a higher income in retirement by ‘shopping around’ on the open market.
Prudential did not dispute the FCA’s findings. The firm’s agreement to accept the FCA’s findings meant it qualified for a 30% discount. Were it not for this discount the FCA would have imposed a fine of £34,107,200
