N Brown to incur exceptional charge for flawed insurance products

British plus-size fashion retailer N Brown Group expects to incur an exceptional charge of up to 40 million pounds for potential customer compensation related to insurance sold between 2006 and 2014.

N Brown, which a has a financial services arm that provides customers credit to pay for purchases, said it identified flaws in certain general insurance products that had been provided by a third-party underwriter.

"The vast majority of these products were sold to the group's customers in the period leading up to and including 2011. Sales of the relevant products ceased in early 2014," N Brown said in a statement.

A company spokesman said the products were general insurance policies to cover goods being purchased.

N Brown said it expects to incur an exceptional cost in this year's income statement in the range of 35 million pounds to 40 million pounds.

The company added that there may be mitigating actions to reduce the overall net cost and that the matter will not affect underlying operations, the risk profile of its customers or debtor balances.

Shares in N Brown were down 7.3 percent at 282 pence in early trading.