Knight Williams may face client claims

KNIGHT Williams, the retirement income specialist, may face compensation claims totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds following its pounds 50,000 fine by Fimbra, the financial advisers' watchdog, for a series of regulatory failures.

The company, which was also ordered to pay the pounds 23,000 costs of an investigation into its affairs, yesterday promised that it would re-examine all complaints previously made against it.

Knight Williams was found guilty of several rule breaches, including misleading advertising, unbalanced promotional material, and inadequate keeping of files, which meant it could not show that it knew its clients, gave them best advice or supervised its staff properly.

Robin Knight Bruce, chairman of Knight Williams, said: 'We are willing to give fair and prompt consideration to any specific complaint, including the re-submission of former complaints.' He added that he still believed no clients had been disadvantaged.

His assurance was given to the Securities and Investments Board, the main City regulator.

The SIB said: 'We consider that the interests of investors are best served if any complaint is addressed . . . to the firm and is resolved promptly and satisfactorily.'

However, Kenneth Jordan, a founder of the Knight Williams Investors Action Group, said: 'They do not understand that many people have already lost faith in Knight Williams. SIB are merely suggesting that we should follow a procedure which has manifestly failed us in the past.'