Card Protection Plan

CPP is an important York business, with around 1,000 employees.  The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been conducting an inquiry into the company over sales of its card protection and identity products.  The FSA has an important regulatory job to do but they have taken an extraordinarily long time to conduct their investigation into their concerns about the company and have not, in my view, taken sufficient account of the impact that the investigation itself is having on the business – including, of course, those parts of the business which are not under investigation.

 

I first wrote to the FSA to express my concerns nine months ago.  CPP suspended its shares on the London Stock Exchange on 17 February saying that the FSA’s proposals would make it unviable as a business.  In the past ten days I have met CPP’s Chief Executive and Chairman, jointly with the MP for York Outer, Julian Sturdy and the MP for Selby, Nigel Adams.  We wrote a letter, signed by 12 MPs who have CPP employees in their constituencies, to the FSA on Thursday last week.  On a cross-party basis we have also expressed our concern to the Government and written to CPP’s bankers.  The future of the company is still not secure.