Figures published by Money Marketing last week indicate that so far the FSCS has paid out £56.3 million to 2,878 investors in FCA-authorised Ponzi scheme London Capital and Finance.

At around £19,500 per investor, that's pretty typical of the average total investment.

Apart from £2.7m for investors who transferred a stocks and shares ISA, the vast majority of that was paid for LCF giving misleading "advice". Despite not being a financial advice firm, not being authorised to give financial advice, and employing no financial advisers, Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy payers, i.e. the general public, have been put on the hook on the basis of "I'd advise my own mother to invest in this" school of salesmanship.

An unedifying dispute broke out this week as Andrew Bailey testified to a Treasury Select Committee about the collapse of London Capital and Finance.

In one of the more depressing sections of Dame Gloster's report into the FCA's mishandling of the FCA-authorised Ponzi scheme (in a crowded field), Dame Gloster highlighted how, instead of using the investigation as an opportunity to learn from its mistakes, the FCA instead tried to shirk responsibility, claiming that holding individuals responsible for their failings might deter people from applying to be senior bureaucrats, and questioning whether, in a very real sense, there was any such thing as responsibility at all.