Insurance broker Willis fined £7m by FSA

Willis Limited carpeted by the Financial Services Authority for failing sufficiently to monitor payments to overseas third parties.

One of Britain's leading insurance brokers has been slapped with a record £7m fine by the financial watchdog for failing to put in place robust anti-bribery systems, after an investigation unearthed suspicious payments in Russia and Egypt.

Willis Limited, an arm of the Willis Group, has been carpeted by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing sufficiently to monitor £27m of payments to overseas third parties who had helped the company win new business.

The FSA said that Willis failed to take appropriate steps to ensure that payments were not being used for corrupt purposes, despite repeated warnings about potential corruption in the industry.