The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has denied it was “tipped off” by French insurance regulators over the activities of Independent Insurance's French arm.
The announcement came after investigations by Insurance Times revealed on Tuesday that the FSA had been warned by the Commission de Controle des Assurances (CCA) late last year of under-reserving and non-entry of claims at Independent's French company.
However, Southern Magazines managing director Jonathan Shephard said the Insurance Times stood by its story.
“Insurance Times was specifically told by a source at the CCA that the CCA had raised concerns with the FSA about claims in the French subsidiary of Independent which were “non-enrégistrés” (not recorded) and about claims valued at next to nothing,” Shephard said.
“They said they had “envoyé un rapport detaillé en décembre 2000” to the FSA (sent the FSA a detailed report in December 2000). The report said that Independent had “trompé” (deceived) the CCA and had “faussé les comptes de la filiale” (falsified the accounts of its subsidiary). They said that “ce qu'ils ont fait en France” (what Independent did in France) “c'était une sorte de folie” (was a type of madness).”
However the FSA said: “Information provided by the French authorities in January 2001 added nothing to what we already knew about the UK company. Suggestions that we failed to act on a tip-off are incorrect.'
Shephard said he noted
