Wesleyan has been told to pay compensation and apologise to a client for “extremely poor” service after it made an error on their Isa.
The financial advice firm mistakenly authorised a withdrawal from an Isa account when it should have been from an investment bond.
The Financial Ombudsman Service said the firm should pay the client, only known as Dr S, £1,000 for the distress caused.
What happened?
In December 2019, Dr S tried to withdraw £6,000 from their investment bond.
However, Wesleyan incorrectly processed the withdrawal from Dr S’s stocks and shares Isa.
The client first complained about the issue in January 2020, when it was promised the problem would be resolved.
After Dr S did not receive statements for the investment bond account in April that year, they complained to the company.
Two years on in 2022, Dr S had a review with a Wesleyan adviser and was told the withdrawal was still showing as having been made on both the bond and Isa.
At this point, Wesleyan offered £250 compensation for the inconvenience but a year later confirmation of the remedy had still not been made.
In January 2023, Dr S took the case to the ombudsman.
In a decision report, ombudsman Katie Haywood, said: “Wesleyan hasn’t explained why this issue happened, nor where the money was paid to, despite being asked by both Dr S and our service.
“Our service is not able to audit a firm’s systems – we are reliant on answers being provided to questions we ask.”
The ombudsman was not able to establish why the mistake was made as the information was not provided by Wesleyan.
The decision said Wesleyan should refund administration and advice charges relating to the fund.
Haywood added: “I don’t think it’s fair that Dr S should have to pay for the cost of this Isa when Wesleyan haven’t been able to administer it properly for more than four years.
“I see no reason why Wesleyan didn’t reconstruct the Isa within days of the withdrawal, let alone after this amount of time.
“This is an extremely poor level of administrative service that has been provided.”
Wesleyan was also told to pay Dr S £1,000 in compensation, including the £250 already offered.
The decision was issued in February and Wesleyan was given 28 days to remedy the situation.
It was accepted by Dr S, but Wesleyan did not reply to the ombudsman.
A spokesperson from Wesleyan said: "As a mutual, we care about the experiences of our customers and regrettably, our handling of Dr S’s case fell well below the high standards we set for ourselves.
“We have now resolved the issue and apologised to Dr S for the poor service they received. We have also paid compensation to Dr S and are conducting a full review into what went wrong to prevent a repeat issue in future.”
