The admission, which backs up evidence from Consumers’ Association showing that up to five million consumers with an endowment mortgage have been mis-sold, reinforces the need for rigorous action and a complete review of the FSA’s approach.
Louise Hanson, Head of Campaigns, Consumers’ Association, said:
"Even the FSA has now admitted that the endowment crisis is very widespread. We are now calling for the regulator to carry out its promise to be ‘more proactive’ and ‘sharper’ by taking forward a stratified review to identify the worst offending companies and to force them to treat mis-sold consumers fairly.
"It is unacceptable that the FSA should shirk responsibility for providing figures of the number of consumers with a shortfall. If it does not understand the extent of the problem how can it ever hope to address it?
"Our evidence indicates that there has been systemic mis-selling. If you have an endowment mortgage there is a strong chance you could be running out of time to complain."
