Martin Wheatley, managing director of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and chief executive officer designate of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), announced that he wanted to see an end to mis-selling created by sales incentives. At a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event in London, Martin Wheatley announced a major piece of work to tackle poorly designed incentive schemes that too often result in customers being sold products they do not need or cannot use, while boosting the earnings of the sales person. In his speech he discussed the findings of a review of 22 firms’ financial incentive schemes. That review, which encompassed banks, building societies, insurers, and investment firms, uncovered a range of serious failings. These include: (i) most incentive schemes were likely to drive people to mis-sell and these risks were not being properly managed; (ii) firms failing to identify how incentive schemes might encourage staff to mis-sell, suggesting they had not properly thought about the risks or simply turned a blind eye to them; (iii) firms failing to understand their own incentive schemes because they were so complex, therefore making it harder to control them; (iv) firms relying too much on routine monitoring of staff rather than taking account of the specific features of their incentive schemes; (v) sales managers with clear conflicts of interests, such as a responsibility to manage the conduct of sales staff whilst themselves able to earn a bonus if their team made more sales; and (vi) firms not doing enough to control the risk of mis-selling in face to face situations.