Closing the split

The FSA and 18 firms involved in the management and sale of split capital investment trusts agreed on Christmas Eve that £194m would be paid into a fund to cover losses incurred by eligible investors in zero dividend preference shares and associated products.The firms have not admitted liability and the FSA has not ruled on whether they breached any of its rules. The Authority, which had previously stated its goal to be a settlement of £350m, contends that the deal offers investors certainty of outcome against the alternative prospect of protracted investigations into unregulated investment vehicles for practices in a period – September 2000 to February 2002 - during part of which the FSA did not have its powers.