The ‘Safeguards for Investors’, defined in Schedule 2 of the Financial Services Act 1986, stipulated that the rules of the organisation governing the carrying on of investment business of any kind by its members must afford investors protection at least equivalent to that afforded, in respect of investment business of that kind, by the rules and regulations for the time being in force under Section 48 of the Act.


To maintain self-regulatory control, the Self-Regulating Organisations, LAUTRO (Life Assurance Unit Trust Regulatory Organisation) and FIMBRA (Financial Intermediaries, Managers and Brokers Regulatory Authority), duly altered their Conduct of Business Rules in conformity with the ‘safeguard’ stipulations of the Act; their Rules therefore mirrored the Section 48 Financial Services Conduct of Business Rules introduced by the Securities and Investment Board in accordance with the Principles defined in Schedule 8 of the Act.


But, while the Rules existed, disregard for the consumers' / investors’ Statutory and Common Law protections continued to be the ‘order of the day’.