UK's Osborne says "profoundly concerned" about insurance leak

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - British finance minister GeorgeOsborne said on Tuesday he was "profoundly concerned" about theway news of a review of Britain's insurance sector caused theshare price of insurance firms to fall sharply last week.

In a letter to the chairman of Britain's Financial ConductAuthority, Osborne said the regulator's inquiry into the leakhad to be "completely independent" of its top management.

"The starting point must be that the FCA holds itself to atleast as high standards as it would expect of a listed companyhandling highly market-sensitive information," Osborne said inthe letter which was published on the Treasury's website.

(Writing by William Schomberg)