The follow change was made to the aggregate complaints data from 2013 H1.
Table 5.1: Redress paid by firm type
The FCA will no longer publish this table for data reported to us with a reporting period-end date from 1 January 2013.
When firms change their primary categories or ‘firm types’ over time, individual firms can become identifiable within a firm type if its redress figures account for a significant proportion of the firm types’ total. Continuing to publish data in this format, could then lead to us breaching Section 348 of Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. For this reason, we will cease, with immediate effect, publication of table 5.1 from the aggregate complaints data.
Section 348 of FSMA restricts the FCA from disclosing ‘confidential information’ it has received as result of carrying out its functions except in certain limited circumstances (none of which apply here). Confidential information for these purposes is defined as information which relates to the business or other affairs of any person and which was obtained by the FCA for the purposes of, or in the discharge of, its functions under FSMA and which is not in the public domain.
Any information from a firm provided to the FCA would have been received for the purpose of carrying out its supervision of that firm, so falls within Section 348. Consequently the FCA is prohibited from disclosing any information which the FCA received while performing its regulatory duties and which is not in the public domain. The amount of redress paid by individual firms is not made public by the firms or the FCA.
Disclosure of any such information is in breach of section 348 of FSMA and is a criminal offence.
We will continue to publish Table 5.2: Redress paid by type of product; this table will be renamed as Table 5.1. We will also continue to publish the number of complaints by firm type as firms are required to publish their own data when they receive 500 or more complaints within a reporting period, so it already exists in the public domain.