The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has prohibited the director of a Manchester-based mortgage and general insurance firm from holding senior positions in the financial services industry.
Matthew Sixsmith was the director of Bridgewater House UK, which dealt chiefly in the sub prime mortgage market and also arranged life and critical illness insurance in connection with those mortgages .
The FSA said his failure to comply with client money rules had lead to the loss of approximately £85,000 of his customers' money. When Bridgewater sold an insurance policy, it would charge its customers two years' insurance premiums upfront and then add this amount to the mortgage. The company agreed with its customers that it would hold this money and then pay the insurance premiums to insurers on their behalf.
However, Mr Sixsmith failed to separate his customers' money from that of the company and used only one bank account under the name of Bridgewater to administer both his business and the premium payments customers had entrusted to him.




