The Financial Services Authority's managing director in charge of consumer, investment and insurance, John Tiner, last night said millions of savers, and many of the investment and insurance companies that served them, were in grave risk in the current uncertain economic climate, The Independent has reported.
The newspaper said Tiner warned that the risk came from a legacy of poor corporate strategy, billowing costs, operational problems and weak controls.
According to the newspaper, Tiner, speaking at a meeting of the Association of Investment Trust Companies, said: "The contribution of a less benign economic environment, powerfully performing equity markets, lower capital markets activity and a weaker credit environment are likely to erode many firms' profitability.
"It may well be the case that a strong market performance over the last decade has disguised poorly thought-out strategies, rapidly expanding cost bases, operating problems and weak management and systems controls.
"These are becoming exposed as difficult market conditions persist and can have an adverse effect from a market confidence and consumer protection perspective."
The Independent added that Tiner believed this could hurt the public by leading them to invest in products offering the sort of high returns that were available in the 1990s, but at higher risk.
As a result, consumers may enter "areas of complexity they cannot cope with and cause firms more difficulty in judging whether such products are suitable to their client's particular circumstances".
