An investigation into the FCA's approach to its probe into closed-book insurance policies found the regulator's reaction was "seriously inadequate".
The Davis Review, published this afternoon, said the FCA has fallen short of the standards expected of those it regulates.
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The regulator has fully accepted the criticisms and apologised for the mistakes it made. The problems arose from a briefing given to the media in advance of the official announcement.
The report stated: "The FCA's strategy of giving an advance briefing to The Telegraph in relation to the scope of the Life Insurance Review was well-intentioned: the FCA had sought to avoid the nature and scope of the Life Insurance Review being misunderstood when it was announced for the first time in the Business Plan, to be published on Monday 31 March 2014.
"The strategy and the manner in which it was pursued was, however, high risk, poorly supervised and inadequately controlled. When it went wrong, the FCA's reaction was seriously inadequate and fell short of the standards expected of those it regulates."
FCA chairman John Griffith-Jones said: "Simon Davis has produced a comprehensive and rigorous report in which he makes a number of criticisms of the way the FCA handled the launch of the 2014/15 Business Plan.
"The Board fully accepts Mr Davis' criticisms and on behalf of the FCA we apologise for the mistakes that were made and the shortcomings in systems and controls which his report has revealed.
"Mr Davis also makes a number of recommendations about changes to our systems, processes and ways of working. We accept all of his recommendations and I can confirm that we are now implementing them.
"As a regulator we hold ourselves to the highest standards and in this case we fell short. I am determined the FCA will learn the lessons, and we will do our utmost to ensure that a situation like this will never happen again."
The FCA announced a major restructure this week, with some senior figures departing. Read the full story HERE.


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