HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Helen Liddell warns that all firms must pull their weight in the review of personal pensions mis-selling [December 1997]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 11 December 1997.

All pensions firms, including the thousands of firms that are not being individually monitored by the Treasury, must get their act together and speed up their processing of cases, Helen Liddell, Economic Secretary, said today.

Mrs Liddell spoke after she published the latest monthly progress statistics in response to a Parliamentary question.  This revealed the position at the end of November for each of  41 pensions companies which together account for about four out of every five cases for review.   The figures show continuing variation in firms’ performance, with many  firms making headway, but too many still lagging behind.

Publishing the figures Mrs Liddell said :

“There is no cut-off point that makes a firm too small to be expected to honour  the personal pensions review.  Each and every firm – from the large household names to the smallest IFA – must get on with the urgent task of processing cases and making redress where it is due.  No-one is off the hook.

“Although much of the focus in the press has been on larger firms, I have not forgotten about the thousands of smaller firms, and neither have the regulators.”

Commenting on the figures, Mrs Liddell said :

“Too many people are still facing long delays in getting the redress that is due to them.  A few firms are now making very promising progress, but there is still  a long way to go for most of the firms listed, and sadly some have still not progressed beyond the initial stages.

“Regulatory discipline is fast becoming a real prospect for some companies.   It is now up to each firm to make every effort to make rapid progress so that the powers I outlined in the House of Commons last month do not need to be used.”