The CCJ results from the FSA failing to pay the £339 owed to one of its suppliers within the 30-day deadline.
The Mayor’s and City of London Court ordered the regulator to pay the supplier, which it eventually did – six months later.
The CCJ will be stamped on the regulator’s credit history until August 2007.
The FSA has also astonishingly admitted that around 11 per cent of its invoices are not paid within the 30 days allocated to pay off suppliers.
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesman for the FSA, said: “Around 89 per cent of our invoices are not overdue and paid within the 30 days. There are a number of reasons why there may be late payment.
It can be down to not posting the payment to the right person or not having all the complete information so we have to chase people up. It’s quite frequent that people get CCJs.”
Responding to criticisms from brokers about being governed by a regulator that cannot pay its own bills on time, Gordon-Walker said:
“We would still expect brokers to be prompt with their payments. There is no excuse here. We don’t have rules about how brokers deal with paying suppliers though anyway.”
John Stewart, director of PMI Independent Financial Advisers, commented: “This is hilarious, but also outrageous. The FSA should be whiter than white and lead by example.
‘It should be closed down for this. It would certainly hang us out to dry for similar offences.”
Peter Beaumont, sales and marketing director at non-conforming lender Mortgages plc, said it would be happy to give the FSA a good mortgage deal if they needed one, even with its CCJ.
“I would be delighted to help them out if they needed it,” he said.
Jeff Knight, head of marketing services at GMAC-RFC, said it would also oblige but felt it would also need to look at the “FSA’s ability to pay and do a full credit check beforehand.”
