The FCA handed out 10 fines in six months of 2019, more than in the previous three years. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Financial services watchdog starts to mete out stiff penalties

Aminy Andawi
Business Tips in Indonesia
Tax & Customs
Jul 16, 2019
5087
The city regulator faced high pressure over failing to fulfill customers protection on the financial services industry, which has to lead to a high imposed in the first half of 2019. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed fines worth a total of £319.2m which is more than five times the annual total for 2018 of £60.5m.

So far the biggest fine in 2019 was the £102m imposed on Standard Chartered in April for anti-money laundering which created gap sanctions against Iran. The Bank of Scotland’s also got big penalties of £45.5m to disclose information about a £245m fraud and £29m for Carphone Warehouse’s miss-selling of insurance-linked to Geek Squad service.

Campaigners say that the regulators should have canceled all scandals and troubled business since the very first day, on FCA's meeting. Moreover, FCA's top bosses will answer every question about the troubled business. The meeting was held on Wednesday and has extra significance due to Andrew Bailey, the FCA’s chief executive is one of the leading candidates to become the next governor of the Bank of England.

The questions on how RBS and Bank of Scotland is now part of Lloyds Banking Groups and claimed that the regulator has failed to support small businesses that the banks preyed upon. On the other hand, Neil Mitchell, one of the campaigners who campaign for compensation for former business customers of RBS GRG unit said that the FCA has tackled some of the financial crime in the city. However, the commercial and regulatory disputes specialist at the Osborne Clarke law firm, Nick Price said that the headline numbers the FCA’s fines were normal.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/14/city-regulator-fines-balloon-to-320m-in-six-months

Business , International