FSA attacked over Iceland

MPs HAVE accused the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of deliberately misleading a Select Committee over the failure of Icelandic banks.

The Communities and Local Government Committee, which is investigating why local authorities put over £1bn into Icelandic banks before they collapsed, criticised the regulator in a hard-hitting letter for being “unhelpful to the point of obfuscation.”

It also said the FSA was not fulfiling its duty as a regulator.

“We strongly suspect that the clear answer to our question of what steps the FSA has actually taken to regulate treasury advisers is ‘none’,” the group said.

The FSA responded: “We absolutely refute the charge of obfuscation.”

The City watchdog added: “We endeavoured to be helpful to the Committee by providing the information they requested.”