As far as FSA fines go it’s a biggie compared to previous ones but still teeny compared to the size of the fund, which at one stage had £2.2 billion in assets under management.

The pension provider was hit for publishing misleading literature about one of its investment funds. It is understood that around 98,000 investors were led up the garden path.

According to the Financial Services authority, investors had been told all their money was in cash when it was mainly in much riskier asset-backed investments. Basically the fund got sold as a cash product despite being more than 50% invested in risky mortgage-backed securities.

In January of last year investors were told that their investment had dropped 5%. They were however compensated by standard Life for its mistake at a cost of £103m.

The FSA have said the firm had been guilty of publication of misleading marketing material. There were allegedly inadequate systems in place to ensure that the marketing material issued contained accurate investment strategy for the fund concerned. Clearly.