Shares in UK insurers and pension managers fell sharply Friday, after the Financial Conduct Authority confirmed it would launch an inquiry into charges and restrictions on old policies worth billions of pounds.

The review, to be included in the FCA's business plan for the next year that will be published on Monday, will examine the terms and conditions of policies written in the 30 years up to 2000, on the suspicion that many of them effectively discriminate against old customers, to the benefit of new ones.