Sanctions threat to investment firms

The Central Bank has said it will consider sanctioning investment firms if they fail to heed warnings over poor levels of communication of costs and charges to their customers.

The regulator yesterday published the results of a themed review into the provision of information on costs and charges by investment firms. In it, the bank noted a number of “unfair contract terms”, where companies had “unreasonably sought to limit their liability to clients”, but said that following correspondence, the firms had removed the terms.

Elsewhere, it identified weaknesses in the presentation and content of information provided to clients on costs and charges, prior to the provision of services. Also noted were failures to provide information prior to the provision of services and a failure to do so in the required formats, such as being displayed on their websites.