FCA has imposed its second largest ever fine for AML controls failings. It has fined Standard Chartered Bank £102.2m for failings in its wholesale bank correspondent banking business and its branches in the UAE. It...
Category - Enforcement & Litigation
Emma RadmoreFCA’s decision to fine broker for market abuse upheld
The Upper Tribunal has today published its decision in Linear Investments Ltd v FCA [2019] UKUT 0115 (TCC) (FS2018/054), in which it upheld the FCA’s decision to fine Linear for market abuse failings. In September...
Angie BamboulisFCA gives investigations update
Mark Steward has spoken on partly contested cases, the pipeline and AML investigations. Key points included: the partly contested case process has, since 2017, allowed those subject to FCA disciplinary action to choose...
ESMA happy with national product intervention measures
ESMA has issued positive opinions on product intervention measures taken by not only the FCA in relation to binary options, but also the Polish KNF and Dutch AFM (also in respect of binary options), and a further...
CMA issues Directions to 5 banks
The CMA has issued directions to 5 banks (Bank of Ireland, Santander, LBG, HSBC and Danske) who have not delivered all aspects of their App-to-App functionality. The directions explain what the banks are to do...
Caroline StevensonFCA makes binary option banning rules
FCA has published its final position and Handbook Rules on permanent product intervention measures that will ban sale, marketing and distribution of binary options to retail consumers. ESMA has extended its temporary...
London Capital investigation to start
Treasury has announced an independent investigation into what happened at London Capital & Finance. Treasury and FCA both feel there is public interest in a statutory investigation, and so Treasury is using its...
FCA regulation of CMCs starts
1 April saw the start of FCA regulation of claims management companies. Over 900 companies have registered with FCA for temporary permission, without which they cannot operate until fully authorised. FCA will have the...
Senior bankers sentenced for manipulating EURIBOR rate
The Senior Fraud Office (SFO) announced that 2 former senior bankers at Barclays, Carlo Palombo and Colin Bermingham, were sentenced to a total of 9 years imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court for manipulating the Euro...
FCA fines GSI £34m for 10 years of poor transaction reporting
FCA has fined Goldman Sachs International £34.3m for failing to provide accurate and timely reporting from the date of implementation of MiFID (November 2007) to March 2017. The failings affected over 220 million...
HM TREASURY PUBLISHES FINDINGS ON FSA SUPERVISION OF CO-OP BANK PLC
HM Treasury has published the findings of an independent review into the prudential supervision of the Co-Operative Bank between 2008 – 2013. The findings of the report were balanced, but did identify possible...
Roseyna JahangirEurope reaches political agreement on reforms to EU supervision
The European Parliament and Member States have reached agreement on core elements of the reform of European supervision of financial markets, including strengthening the supervisory framework in the area of anti-money...
EBA agrees form of MoU between European and UK supervisors
As part of the no-deal Brexit preparations, the Board of Supervisors of the EBA have confirmed that a template MoU has been agreed with the FCA and PRA. If there is a no-deal Brexit, this template will be used as the...
Treasury Committee asks for London Capital inquiry
The Treasury Committee has written to Treasury and FCA asking for an investigation into the events at London Capital and Finance. FCA had told the firm to withdraw its promotional materials for its mini-bonds in...
WBD boosts expertise with white collar partner
Womble Bond Dickinson is delighted to have expanded its offering in the financial services and insurance sectors with the hire of white collar crime partner, Audrey Koh. Audrey has substantial experience of advising...
FIN. TeamFCA fines Carphone Warehouse for insurance misselling
FCA has fined the Carphone Warehouse over £29 million for misselling its “Geek Squad” mobile phone insurance and technical support product, and acting in breach of its Principles 3,6 and 9. Following...
Insurance MoUs agreed between BoE, FCA, EIOPA and EU supervisors
The UK supervisory authorities have agreed memoranda of understanding with European counterparts, to facilitate the coordinated supervision of insurance entities in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The MoUs cover...
BoE and FCA update on Brexit approach
BoE and FCA have updated their respective websites with coordinated information on their approach to a hard Brexit. BoE has published a series of materials setting out its updated plans to its supervisory approach to a...
FCA takes first competition action
In its first decision under its competition powers, FCA has found that 3 asset management firms have breached competition law by sharing of strategic information, the effect of which was that the firms knew each others...
EBA investigates regulators over Danske Bank
EBA has opened a formal investigation into possible breaches by the Estonian and Danish financial services regulators of EU law in connection with the links of Danske Bank and, in particular, its Estonian branch, with...
ESMA creates Brexit page
ESMA has created a new web-page on Brexit, setting out how it is preparing for it. Its latest agreement is a MoU with BoE for recognition of CCPs and the Central Securities Depository. It aims to recognise all UK CCPs...
FCA fines fund manager
FCA has fined Paul Stephany, formerly a fund manager at Newton Investment Management Limited. It imposed the £32,200 fine after it found Mr Stephany twice submitted orders as part of a book build for shares that were to...
FCA agrees Brexit MoUs with European securities regulators
As part of the preparation for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, the FCA has agreed MoUs with ESMA and with EU and NCAs, covering supervision, enforcement and information exchange, including in relation to credit rating...
FCA feeds back on RND and Plevin issues
FCA has published a detailed policy statement to back up the new rules on regular premium PPI complaints and recurring non-disclosure of commission. FCA stresses that one of the main purposes of its consultation and now...
Tribunal rules on Burns costs
The Upper Tribunal has ruled on whether any part of costs claimed by Alistair Burns (on his unsuccessful application) should be awarded. The Tribunal has discretion over the award of costs, but can only make the award...
FCA makes new rules
FCA’s latest Handbook Update lists rules made in December and January. The key changes: amend the rules on PCAs and Overdrafts from 18 December 2019: these changes amend BCOBS and CONC to tackle low levels of...
New Financial Services head at Womble Bond Dickinson
We are delighted that Jonny Williams has joined the financial services regulatory team at Womble Bond Dickinson UK.
More information on Jonny and his appointment can be found here.
FCA confirms Keydata individual fines
FCA has published its final notices banning Stewart Ford and Mark Owen from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity and fining them £76 million and £3,240,787 respectively. Mr Ford held the CF1, 3...
Treasury Committee publishes SME reports
In October, the Treasury Committee reported on SME finance, making several recommendations including setting out its views on the availability of FOS and the Tribunal for SME disputes, and the suggestion that commercial...
Government updates Blocking Order regulations
The Extraterritorial US Legislation (Sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Libya) Protection of Trading Interests)(Amendment) Order 2018 will take effect on 1 February 2019. It updates a 1996 order to reflect updates to the...
FCA sets out ex post impact evaluation framework
FCA has published its final framework setting out how it will measure the impact of its past interventions.
FCA updates on diversity
In a speech by Christopher Woolard, FCA has called on firms to increase their efforts to integrate diversity and inclusion principles in their business frameworks. While things are moving in the right direction, Mr...
FCA fines for bank bereavement process failings
FCA has fined Santander £32,817,000 for failing effectively to process the accounts and investments of deceased customers. FCA found the bank did not transfer funds totally over £183m to customers when it should have...
FOS consults on plans for 2019/20
The FOS has published a consultation on its plans and budget for 2019/2020. It notes that from April 2019, its jurisdiction will be expanded by the addition of two significant areas of work: complaints made by SME...
FCA bans Angela Burns
FCA has finally issued its final notice banning Angela Burns from acting as a NED and has fined her £20,000. Ms Burns acted as NED for two mutual societies and was chair of their investment committees. She provided...
PRA updates on skilled persons reports
PRA has published the Q3 2018 figures for skilled persons reports commissioned. There have been 3 on controls and risk management frameworks and one in the prudential insurance lot.
Tribunal rules on Prodhan
The Upper Tribunal has ruled on an application by Mohammad Prodhan, former CEO of Sonali Bank (UK). Mr Prodhan contended that FCA was time-barred from taking action against him. He also applied for a direction for his...
Companies House to do sanctions checks
Companies House has announced it now carries on additional checks on certain applicants for registration, to guard against designated persons using economic resources such as companies in an attempt to get round...
Charity Commission publishes sanctions alert
The Charity Commission has warned charities that operate in Syria or Turkey of the dangers of aid passing through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing. There have been reports that the crossing is under the control of Al...
FCA plans permanent CFD intervention measures
FCA is consulting on permanent rules to restrict the marketing, distribution and sale of CFDs and CFD-like options to retail consumers. The proposals are similar to the ESMA temporary measures, but FCA wants also to...
FCA updates on “unacceptable” pension transfer advice
FCA has published the key findings from its recent information gathering exercise on pension transfer advice. This year it has collected information from an additional 45 firms and visited 18 of them. It found less than...
CMA Consults on Annual Plan 2019/2020
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is consulting on its proposed Annual Plan, which sets out its plans and priorities for 2019 to 2020. Subject to the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, the CMA plans to give...
FCA decides to fine former Sonali CEO
FCA has published a decision notice setting out its proposal to find Mohammad Prodhan, the former CEO of Sonali Bank (UK) Ltd £76,400 in relation to the bank’s AML systems and controls. Mr Prodhan was responsible...
Standard Bank DPA comes to an end
SFO announced that the first DPA, agreed with what is now ICBC Standard Bank plc for breach of s7 Bribery Act, has come to an end after the bank successfully complied with its terms. The DPA lasted for 3 years. Its...
FCA makes new rules on RND and PPI complaints
At its latest Board meeting, FCA has made changes to DISP and its guidance, effective from 8 November, to confirm that firms must not reject relevant regular premium PPI complaints without considering whether recurring...
FCA writes to Treasury Committee on Register
Andrew Bailey has written to Nicky Morgan setting out FCA’s plans for improving accessibility and usability of the Financial Services Register, and updating on its recent consultation on the register of...
FCA reviews whistleblowing arrangements
FCA has published its review of how firms implement FCA whistleblowing rules. Its review covered a range of wholesale and retail banks. It found several areas of both good and poor practice to comment on, and now urges...
PRA fines individuals for failing to disclose information
PRA has fined 2 individuals connected with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi following its action in 2017 against the bank and MUFJ Securities EMEA. It has fined Akira Kamiya, former Chair of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities...
CMA unhappy with ComparetheMarket home insurance deals
The CMA has made a provisional finding that ComparetheMarket includes clauses in many of its contracts with home insurers that breach competition law and could lead to higher premiums for consumers. It says the clauses...
FCA publishes new Market Watch
The latest edition of Market Watch focuses on “flying prices” and “printing trades” – where firms communicate to clients that they have bids or offers that are not actually supported by an...
FCA fines for failings in oversight of third party claims handling
On 30 October 2018 the FCA announced that it had fined Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe SE (Liberty) £5,280,800. The fine relates to failures in Liberty’s oversight of claims and complaints relating to mobile...
Jonathan DrakeFCA updates on complaints data
FCA has published its H1 2018 complaints data, which show that firms received more than 4 million complaints in the period. This was a 10% increase from the previous period. Nearly all the complaints were made to 235...
FCA writes to CEOs on SIPP due diligence
FCA has written a “Dear CEO” letter on the duties of SIPP operators in respect of due diligence. The letter refers to the judgement in the Berkeley Burke case and several other pending civil claims, and asks...
Court rules on inspection of SARs
The High Court has delivered a judgment in David Lonsdale v National Westminster Bank PLC. The bank had made several SARs in relation to Mr Lonsdale and companies he was involved with and, as a result, had frozen all...
PIFMA concerned about FOS limit increase
PIFMA is concerned that the proposed extension of the upper limits of compensation FOS can order firms to pay out, from £150, 000 to £350,000 could put some small firms out of the market as they will be unable to get...
Treasury starts chemical weapons sanctions regime
Treasury has enabled a regime to implement the EU Regulation on financial sanctions against persons, entities and bodies involved in proliferation and use of chemical weapons. There are not any designated persons on the...
FCA Feedback Statement on Digital Regulatory Reporting
The FCA has published a feedback statement on digital regulatory reporting. This follows the FCA’s call for input on smarter regulatory reporting in February 2018. The FCA found that most respondents agreed that...
Treasury updates Brexit SIs
Treasury has published some new draft statutory instruments to be made under the EU (Withdrawal) Act, or announced plans to make them, and also updated existing drafts. New or updated documents include Regulations on :...
FCA sets out its expectations on debt packager firms providing debt advice and counselling services
The FCA has published a ‘Dear CEO’ letter to debt packager firms, setting out its expectations on the provision of debt advice and counselling services. The FCA is concerned about the poor standards it has...
Skilled person not for judicial review
The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgement in R (Holmcroft Properties Ltd) v KPMG LLP. The case had raised the issue of whether KPMG, as a “skilled person” appointed to carry out an independent review...
FCA speaks on intervention testing
Christopher Woolard has spoken on how FCA recognises the value of testing interventions so that regulation works most effectively. He highlighted how what may seem well intentioned and well designed interventions may...
FCA fines Tesco Bank for failing to prevent cyber attack
FCA has fined Tesco Personal Finance plc £16,400,000. It found the bank failed to exercise due skill, care and diligence in protecting its PCA holders against a cyber attack that took place in November 2016. As a...
ESMA confirms and updates product intervention on CFDs
ESMA has confirmed the further extension of the restriction on marketing, distributing and selling CFDs to retail clients, for another three months. Alongside the extension it has updated its FAQs, particularly to...
Latest Market Watch focuses on transaction reporting
FCA’s latest Market Watch focuses on market conduct and transaction reporting issues. It follows up on previous editions, which looked at FCA’s conclusions from a series of supervisory visits on suspicious...
FCA consults on applying SM&CR to CMCs
The FCA has opened a consultation that sets out how it will apply the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) to Claims Management Companies (CMCs), following taking over regulation of them from 1 April...
FCA announces life insurance investigation outcome
FCA has confirmed it has closed its remaining investigations into life insurers, following its thematic review into the fair treatment of longstanding customers in the life insurance sector. FCA has already closed...
FCA bans former Deutsche trader
FCA has confirmed its ban on Christian Bittar, formerly interest rate derivative trader at Deutsche Bank. It found Mr Bittar requested EURIBOR submitters to make high or low submissions, both internally and externally...
Ringleader sentenced in the FCA’s largest fraud prosecution
Michael Nascimento, the controlling mind of a £2.8m investment fraud was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment in the Southwark Crown Court. Between July 2010 and April 2014, members of the public were cold-called...
ASA rules on RAPR prominence in TV ad
The ASA has published a ruling which upheld a complaint that the representative APR (RAPR) in an advertisement for Sunny Loans was insufficiently prominent. The advert’s ‘incentives’ that triggered...
PRA Regulatory Update – August 2018
The August edition of the PRA’s Regulatory Digest includes: news about a New Insurer Start-up Unit. This is a joint initiative with the FCA. The dedicated page on the Bank of England’s website includes a...
FCA bans individual
FCA has confirmed its ban on Arif Hussein following a decision of the Upper Tribunal published in June. Mr Hussein was a derivatives trader with UBS, who engaged in internal chats with a UBS trader-submitter knowing...
ESMA renews binary option ban
ESMA has confirmed the ban on binary options will remain in place for a further three months. The current ban, which prohibits marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients, expires on 2 October...
Firms’ permissions cancelled for failure to be open and co-operative with the FCA
The FCA has cancelled the Part 4A permissions of two firms, Causeway Group Limited and Prime Render Solutions Limited . The cancellation of the permissions is due to both firms failing to satisfy the suitability...
FOS focuses on fraud and scams
FOS’ latest Ombudsman News focuses on frauds and scams. It comments on the loopholes in new technologies that fraudsters use, and the challenges of addressing a complaint where both customer and bank are adamant...
FCA prosecutes individual for unauthorised investment scheme operation
FCA has started criminal proceedings against Mark Starling for three offences relating to operating CIS without authorisation or exemption over a 9 year period and of fraud. Mr Starling is alleged to have operated...
FOS update on publication of complaints data
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published a statement, following its October 2016 Consultation Paper and December 2016 Feedback Statement on complaints data publication. The Feedback Statement included...
FCA complaints handling review findings
The FCA has published its findings of the review of how Non-deposit Taking Mortgage Lenders (NDTMLs) and Mortgage Third-Party Administrators (MTPAs) handle complaints. In particular the review looked at how NDTMLs and...
All-Party Parliamentary Group calls for full statutory inquiry into business banking sector
The Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking has written to Andrew Bailey of the FCA in the wake of the FCA’s announcement that it was unable to take further action in relation to its...
Tribunal backs decision to ban
The Upper Tribunal has upheld FCA’s decision to ban Alistair Burns, Director and CF1 of TailorMade Independent Limited, firm that advised on pension transfers and opt-outs, from any significant influence or senior...
Tribunal rules on Validation Order on credit agreements brokered by unauthorised firm
The Tribunal has handed down its decision in the case of Plexedes Chickombe and 44 others v the FCA and Clydesdale Financial Services Limited trading as Barclays Partner Finance (Clydesdale) as interested party. The...
FCA updates on high-risk products and retail investors
FCA has added its own views on selling high-risk speculative investments to retail clients. It fully supports ESMA’s measures and notes that ESMA has also recognised the risks of products similar to CFDs. However...
FCA confirms no action will be taken against RBS for treatment of SME customers
The FCA has published an update on its investigation into RBS’s treatment of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers transferred to its Global Restructuring Group (GRG). The FCA commissioned...
FCA makes new rules
FCA’s latest Handbook Notice confirms several rule amendments, including: changes to DEPP and EG to explain the status of industry codes of conduct that FCA has formally recognised; changes to several parts of the...
FCA bans individuals for misleading consumers
FCA has banned the 4 former directors of a now-dissolved credit broker, Secure My Money Limited. It found the firm misled customers into thinking they had been approved for short term loans and as a result took fees of...
FCA publishes intervention approach documents
On a new page on its website, ‘Measuring our impact before we intervene‘, the FCA has published a group of documents that aim to provide an indication of how the FCA assesses the likely impact of its...
FCA responds on complaints
The Complaints Commissioner has published its annual report on complaints against FCA and FCA has responded. FCA notes that the Commissioner upheld FCA’s decision in 90% of the cases reviewed and generally feels...
FCA publishes annual enforcement report
FCA has published its annual report on enforcement actions. In 2017/18 it issued 269 final notices (of which only 21 were against individuals), secured 303 regulatory/civil outcomes (mainly involving refusal...
Treasury consults on pension cold calling ban
Treasury is consulting on a proposed ban on cold calling in relation to pensions. The consultation is a technical consultation on the wording of the legislation necessary to implement the ban, as the policy decision has...
FCA publishes Annual Report
FCA has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18. The report includes details of: FCA’s work preparing for Brexit; key regulatory changes such as MiFID 2 and PSD 2; work on SMCR extension; thematic...
FCA thinks about price discrimination
FCA has published a paper looking at how it should approach fairness in price discrimination in financial services. It notes that price discrimination is not in itself unfair as practices such as student discounts are...
New economic and cybercrime court agreed
A new court dedicated to cybercrime, fraud and economic crime is to be built on the site of Fleetbank House, and is expected to be completed in 2025.
Themes from thematic reviews
We recently wrote an article for Compliance Monitor setting out themes from recent FCA thematic reviews.
FCA makes new rules
FCA has made new rules. The changes affect several parts of the Handbook, including: miscellaneous minor and clarificatory changes, including a change to the application chapter of SYSC to clarify that certain rules in...
Treasury Committee engages with FCA over TSB IT migration
Nicky Morgan and Andrew Bailey have exchanged letters of the problems customers faced following TSB’s IT migration. The Treasury Committee had asked about the work FCA had done in advance of the planned migration...
FCA fines Canara Bank for AML failings
FCA has fined Canara Bank £896,100 for failings in its AML systems, and has restricted it from accepting deposits from new customers for 147 days. FCA found that, for a period of over 3 years, the banks failed to...
FCA publishes quarterly consultation
FCA’s latest quarterly consultation proposes the usual minor miscellaneous changes to its Handbook, including; changes to the appointed representatives appointment firm: the changes are spurred on by IDD changes...
Carillion inquiry criticises regulator
Carillion’s rise and spectacular fall was a story of “recklessness, hubris and greed”. Last week, the Work and Pensions Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee published the final...
Gavin EllisonMemorandum of understanding between FCA and Insolvency Service
The FCA has published a memorandum of understanding (MoU) it has entered with the Insolvency Service (IS). The MoU sets out the agreement between the IS and the FCA that governs the exchange of information to better...
FCA bans director for misappropriation of client money
The FCA has today published a decision notice in which it has banned a director, Darren Newton, from working in any regulated activity in the financial services sector. The FCA found that Mr Newton had used...
SRA fines law firm MLRO for breach of MLRs
The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority has fined Anthony Gale, partner at Maurice Smiths solicitors who was also its compliance officer and MLRO, £10,000 for various conduct failings in relation to a number of...