Crowning disaster for Cornish currency converters

Crown Currency Exchange, a business based in Hayle in Cornwall, processed hundreds of millions of pounds worth of foreign currency, as well as offering travellers' cheques and money transfers. It has now gone spectacularly bust blaming the lack of demand from the travelling public which is diminishing in numbers. Administrators warn that customers face a long wait for news about whether they will get any money back. They believe that £20m is owed, and only £3m is in the kitty. Discrepancies all round, it seems.

By main concern here is not that cash has gone into thinnish air, bad as that is, but that the firm said that they "were registered with the FSA". That meant diddly squat in real terms. The Financial Services Authority should be aware of the status of ALL those in the money-changing business. It seems it missed a trick here. Crown Currency Exchange was registered by the FSA but not regulated by it. There is no safety net from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Doesn't that strike you as a bit of a deception on those who now stand to lose their real money? It does me.