The Secretariat for the APPG is provided by the Transparency Task Force (TTF), a Certified Social Enterprise. The Mission of the TTF is to promote ongoing reform of the financial sector, so that it serves society better; and its vision is to build a highly respected, international and influential institution that is dedicated to helping ensure consumers are treated fairly by the financial sector.
The APPG’s Secretariat is organised through a Secretariat Committee made up of TTF volunteers, as shown below – we are very grateful to them for their support.
The Woodford Scandal involved the suspension and subsequent collapse of the Woodford Equity Income Fund, (“WEIF”).
After a number of bad investments regarded as outside WEIF’s mandate and the scope of an equity income open-ended fund, WEIF hit liquidity problems. After multiple regulatory breaches Neil Woodford engaged in significant financial arbitrage, seemingly to hide WEIF’s problems. WEIF was suspended in 2019 by its authorised corporate director, Link Fund Solutions, and closed shortly afterwards.
In 2023 Link reached agreement with the FCA on a highly controversial Scheme of Arrangement, promoted by the FCA. The Scheme was approved by the High Court and two group litigations already underway against Link had to be dropped. The FCA/FOS thereby refused retail investors being able to access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. With investor capital losses of £1.09 billion and further estimated £270 million lost return on capital up to the Court approval in 2023, this was one of the largest financial investment scandals in the UK. In 2025 the FCA fined Woodford £5.9 million and WIM, currently insolvent, £40 million, (appeal pending).
Ian has extensive lived experience regarding this matter as he and his wife are victims of the scandal.
Authorised Push Payment Fraud occurs when a person is deceived or tricked into authorising a payment from their bank account to an account controlled by another person, where either that person is not the person they intended to pay, or the payment is not used for the purpose they intended.
Published reports indicate that there have been c.200,000 cases of APPFraud, with losses of c.£500m, every year for the last few years.
In respect of Regulation, it is important to understand that if a Customer authorises a payment in accordance with PSR2017, then the bank is obliged to process that payment within a defined time period in all but the most exceptional circumstances.
If a Customer claims that they have been the victim of an APPFraud then their bank will consider a claim for reimbursement under either the CRM Code (May 2019 to October 2024) or the FPS Reimbursement Requirement (since 7 Oct 2024).
If the bank declines the claim for reimbursement, then the Customer can take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
