Top 10 FCA Fines 2022

Top 10 FCA Fines 2022

The total fines levied by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2022 totaled £215,834,156 with the number of penalties doubling from those issued in 2021.

The Top 10

  1. £107.8m – Santander UK plc
  1. £29.75m – TSB Bank
  1. £18m – Julius Baer International Ltd
  1. £12.5m – Citigroup Global Markets Ltd
  1. £10m – Metro Bank plc
  1. £9.1m – GAM International
  1. £7.9m – JLT Speciality Ltd
  1. £5.8m – Ghana International Bank plc
  1. £4.8m – BGC LP Brokers, GFI Securities Ltd & GFI Brokers Ltd
  1. £2.4m – Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Ltd

Poor advice regarding pension transfers, investing in risky assets within SIPPs and poor care of customers in guarantor loans featured in this year’s hall of shame.

However, the biggest fines concerned anti money laundering failures, most notably at Santander UK  where they were fined £107.8m and IT failures at TSB with total fines of £48.65m made up of £29.75m passed down by the FCA and £18.9 from the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Interestingly the number of FCA fines imposed against individuals increased to 10 in 2022 from 3 in the previous year.

FCA fines dwarfed by Danske Banks $2bn fine

Looking outside of the UK, Danske Bank agreed with the Danish regulator and the US Department of Justice to accept a fine and confiscation for violations of the Danish AML Act and the Danish Financial Business Act. The Penalty came in at a whopping $2bn.

Against the domestic and global regulatory environment Jencap’s John Bull warns that financial penalties do not reflect the entire arsenal the FCA has when it comes to punishing wayward firms, “in addition to restraining certain permissions, banning bad players and withdrawal of authorisation, for smaller firms particularly, the costs are almost unmeasurable”.

He added that in “2023, we can expect to see much more enforcement action following the newly introduced Consumer Duty and focus on the Appointed Representative sector”.

Continued focus for 2023

  • Anti-money laundering
  • Consumer Duty
  • Marketing of high-risk investments
  • The Appointed Representative sector
  • The British Steel redress scheme

Jencap Partners is a specialist consultancy specialising in Complaint Management, Regulatory Advice and Redress.

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