The question submitted in advance of the FSA’s annual public meeting on 21 July 2005, on behalf of EMAG:

Q: Adair Turner has been saying of late that the cause of the crisis of trust in the financial services industry is mis-selling and the Equitable Life. I'm unconvinced that Equitable EVER was part of the financial services industry, but the industry has certainly been wounded by it.??

In March 2004 Lord Penrose published an 800-page report which provided a litany of evidence of questionable behaviour by regulators. But one year ago the FSA made the extraordinary assertion that its own report concludes that Penrose does NOT give rise to new mis-selling claims.??

When I challenged you at last year’s Annual Meeting to publish the report I was told: "NO to publication", because it contains privileged materials.??Subsequently, both the Equitable and the FOS have taken advantage of hiding behind that unpublished report. Requests to you under the FOI have been rebuffed with the claim that the crucial appendices and conclusions must remain confidential because of "privilege" and on grounds of commercial sensitivity – this, in a Society that’s been closed for more than four years! ??

The FSA DOES have the right to publish its LEGAL brief and the written advice. But if the FSA has given its actuarial advisors a promise of protection from accountability by granting privilege, this is WHOLLY unacceptable practice – it is against the public interest because it renders highly questionable decisions beyond scrutiny. WHY isn’t the FSA being transparent here???

The FOS IS, whatever Mr Briault asserts, effectively a subsidiary of the FSA. In Walter Merricks' recently announced FOS decision NOT to look at Penrose-related claims he pointed out that GENERIC mis-selling is a question for the FSA - putting the ball firmly back in YOUR court. The problem remains, after five years, at your door - unresolved. ??

WHEN is the FSA going to realise that keeping the lid on Equitable - ostensibly for the greater good of industry confidence – ISN'T working???In 1999 the FSA inherited a can of worms in Equitable Life AND it inherited the Treasury’s strategy of denial and sweeping it under the carpet. Trust in regulators depends on admitting and addressing regulatory failure.??

WHEN is the FSA going to address the Equitable and clean house?

Paul Braithwaite