LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - Martin Wheatley, chiefexecutive of regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), isfacing calls for his resignation after a gaffe that wipedbillions of pounds from the value of insurance companies, theSunday Times newspaper said.
The newspaper said the Association of British Insurers (ABI)is expected to write to finance minister George Osborne tocomplain about the FCA, which has been accused of creating afalse market in insurers' shares.
The FCA was due to announce a review into the life insuranceindustry in its annual business plan on Monday. But a senior FCAsupervisor outlined plans for the review in a press interview onFriday, which resulted in sharp falls in share prices across thesector, including Resolution, Aviva, Legal &General, Standard Life and Prudential.
The FCA later in the day said the review wouldn't look atsales practices nor would it apply current standards to oldpolicies, such as on the level of premature exit charges, afterwhich the insurers' share prices recovered some of their losses.
The Sunday Times said senior sources at four of Britain'sbiggest insurers had told it that Wheatley's position was untenable following Friday's events.
Both the FCA and the ABI declined to comment.
On Saturday Andrew Tyrie, the head of the UK Parliament'sTreasury Committee, described the issue as an "extraordinaryblunder". (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Prudential (PRU)
Aviva (AV.)
Legal & General (LGEN)
