Building societies

That this House recognises the financial and emotional hardship experienced by vulnerable, elderly building society customers and their families through being introduced by building societies which they trusted to firms offering unregulated wills and trusts; acknowledges that the products sold were unsuitable and failed, with investments that did not match members’ attitude to risk, with excessive fees, and ultimately causing the loss of large portions of customers estates, and thereby the loss of their children’s inheritance; highlights the concern victims have that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has failed to act against the building societies despite many FCA Principles for Business being breached, and that the societies failed to perform satisfactory due diligence on the firms they introduced customers to; and as such believes that the FCA should compel the building societies to fully compensate, including for the upset, stress and hardship caused; calls upon the Government to ensure that, if the building societies make an offer of compensation, that the Creditors’ Committee can negotiate on behalf of the impacted individuals and if necessary give powers to the FCA to compel the building societies to compensate the victims in full; and further calls upon the Government to ensure that similar injustices do not happen in the future.