Swinton squirms after £7.4m fine

Swinton Insurance has been forced to make a grovelling apology after being whacked with a £7.38m fine for misselling policies through an “aggressive” telemarketing strategy.
The fine – issued by the Financial Conduct Authority – relates to a two year period between April 2010 and April 2012 when its call centre staff attempted to sell “add-ons”, such as personal accident, home emergency and motor breakdown policies but failed to tell customers that the policies were optional.
The regulator was particularly scathing of the company’s call centre scripts, blasting: “Poor sales scripts meant that every sale could have been a mis-sale.”
FCA director of enforcement and financial crime Tracey McDermott said: “Swinton failed its customers. When selling monthly add-on policies, it did not place the consumer at the heart of its business. Instead it prioritised profit.”
Swinton has now issued an apology and claimed to have changed its practices. The company says it has set aside a total of £11.2m to compensate its customers, even though the FCA reckoned the sales strategy generated £92.9m of income for the company.
More than 650,000 customers had since been contacted, according to the firm, which said it had already paid out £1.9m in compensation. On average customers have been paid £55 each.
In a statement, Swinton chief executive Christophe Bardet said the company “acknowledges the shortcomings in sales practices during this period, and [we] unreservedly apologise to our customers”.

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