FSA states a quarter of financial websites unclear
December 15, 2007
According to the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, around a quarter of websites that promote financial services are actually unfair or unclear.
The Internet has become a hit amongst consumers looking for information or services in the financial sector, and many browse through financial websites to find the services that they need. This, therefore, comes as worrying news to surfers that rely on such websites to deal with their finances.
The Financial Services Authority reviewed 77 financial websites as part of the study, and the results indicated that one in four websites was either unclear or not fair. The FSA stated that a quarter of the websites reviewed “failed to present information in a fair, clear and not misleading way”.
Officials from the FSA said that this was due to failure to bring the customer’s attention to important information and poor navigation. A number of the sites reviewed has not been updates and displayed out of date or inaccurate information. A number of other problems were picked up as part of the review.
A spokesperson from the Financial Services Authority stated: “For many people the internet is the channel of choice for shopping around for financial products. However, it can expose consumers to high risk as they are able to make instant purchases without advice. This is why it is so important that firms’ websites are fair, clear and not misleading.”
The FSA is now planning to clamp down on sub-standard financial websites, and stated that whilst 75% of the websites reviewed were up to scratch it intended to conduct a further review of financial websites next year and would take action against companies that still have sub-standard websites.
Alan Wright
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