The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to target 11,300 small firms in a bid to improve overall service levels provided by insurance brokers and financial advisers.

All the intermediaries, with the first batch to be in Northern Ireland, will be looked at to see how far they have progressed in reaching a deadline set in the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative.

The new measures, first announced by Hector Sants, FSA chief executive, will test the progress made by financial advisers, mortgage intermediaries and general insurance brokers.

Last year, a report found that only 41 per cent of firms were on track to meet the TCF deadline of December this year.

Mark Rothery, chairman of the Smaller Businesses Practitioner Panel, said: "This strategy will incentivise those smaller firms motivated to comply; and act as a meaningful deterrent to the laggards that either seek to do otherwise or who try to fly under the FSA's radar."

Stephen Bland, director of small firms at the FSA, added that the TCF was already a "regulatory priority" and that it was "imperative" that firms improve standards.

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