City conference to focus on mis-selling

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) will announce the results of the pilot reviews of 200 alleged mis-sale cases on Thursday.

Bully-Banks, the campaign group set up in 2011 by business owners who were mis-sold IRSAs, said small businesses are worried that the FSA’s redress scheme will be watered down, leaving SMEs to bear the cost of the misconduct by the high street banks.

It added that a prompt and satisfactory resolution of the issue of the mis-sale of IRSAs to SMEs would have a positive impact upon the UK economy.

Some 40,000 businesses were hit by the mis-selling scandal.

Bully-Banks, which claims the FSA is aware that banks mis-sold IRSAs, estimates that at least 200,000 people have lost their jobs as the direct result of the mis-sale of IRSAs.

It added that 200,000 jobs would have been created if small businesses had not been hit by the mis-sale of these products.