FSA fines Liberata £525,000 for customer document failings

The FSA has announced a fine of £525,000 for third party administration firm Liberata Financial Services Limited (Liberata), for failures in its systems and controls for producing and issuing documents to life and pensions policyholders.

The FSA said Liberata's failings meant that there was an unacceptable risk that any of the 1.3 million policyholders whose policies it administered would not receive important financial information to help with their investment decisions and, consequently, could suffer financial loss.

The failings resulted in 30,000 policyholders not receiving information, of whom 161 suffered financial loss amounting to £17,584.

The FSA determined that the firm acted recklessly in failing to heed warnings in its management information that documents were not being produced.