Why Wonga should pay £34,334,929,158 to everyone it sent false letters to

This week we’ve had the disgusting news that Wonga, in 2008 – 2010, thuggishly sent letters from fake law firms to scare people who’d defaulted into repaying. The FCA has ordered it to pay £2.6m in compensation, which equates to £50 for each customer affected. Sadly, there was no fine, as at the time these acts were...

I predict the first ‘car insurance marketplaces’ will start in September

The Competition and Markets Authority has been investigating the insurance market, and within its 12 June proposals – likely to be enacted in September – is a seemingly innocuous clause that could signal a huge change to how people find cheap car and home insurance. It could also signal the death knell for some car insurance cashback....

Dear Chancellor – stop fighting the regulator, or make it stop fighting you!

My suspicion is there’s internecine warfare going on right now between the Government and the regulators.  If true, it’s damaging for Britain and makes me wish I could bang their heads together. On the one hand, the Chancellor and the Government are proposing a raft of ideas to liberalise the financial services market and attempting to stimulate...