The BBC and News Letter are reporting that the Presbyterian Mutual Society broke the law by running as a bank without the necessary authorisation
The FSA have been investigating the circumstances which led to the collapse.
In a statement it said: “We have concluded our investigation and have decided that the PMS was conducting regulated activities without the necessary authorisation or exemption.
“However, on the basis of the information currently available to us, and applying the criteria in the Code for Crown Prosecutors, we have decided that it would not be right for us to take a case against any of those involved in running the PMS.
“However, we remain in touch with the administrator and, if further information comes to light relating to the issues we have investigated, we will look into it.”
I have argued this before but now with a clear suggestion that this organisation, inextricably linked as it was with the PCI, has been found in breach of the law; surely it is time for the Presbyterian Church to financially compensate those individuals who have suffered from this illegality? The church would be in a much better moral position to ask the government to help if it was prepared to set an example by accepting at least some of the financial repercussions which have affected many Presbyterians; a large number of whom are elderly and can ill afford this hardship.
This author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.