Compliance Monitor

"Credible deterrence: here to stay," was the truculent title of the FSA's Enforcement Conference back in July. We've been warned. Adam Samuel examines the historical context of financial services enforcement and the arsenal of weapons that may be wielded by the regulator.

As meat forms on the bones of the future regulator, Charlotte Hill and William Maycock summarise key issues in the FSA's October Approach Document and flag up concerns for compliance officers.

Recent FSA final notices and thematic reviews habitually highlight the role that poor Management Information (MI) has played in regulatory failures at financial services firms. Excessive and insufficiently relevant MI can seriously hamper management's ability to understand and act upon conduct risks. Angus Goldie and Andrew Nanson suggest some questions that executives should be asking of their approach.

For years the Financial Services Authority was castigated for its seeming inability to bring enforcement actions against senior members of key firms. But cases in which it has lately made aggressive attempts to answer its critics have highlighted that regulatory expectations of Significant Influence Functions are somewhat skimpily outlined in the Handbook. Nathan Willmott warned a recent conference that many SIFs do not grasp the proactive rather than reactive nature of their responsibilities, as currently viewed by Canary Wharf.

Graeham Sampson, finance director of a Leicester-based SIPP operator and administrator, has been penalised £17,850 for failing to calculate his firm's regulatory capital position correctly. The firm, MPAS, therefore operated in breach of its..

The Upper Tribunal has directed the FSA to ban Raymond Wagner from regulated functions, but not to fine him for his part in the submission of inaccurate mortgage applications - as he is subject to financial hardship. He has instead been publicly..

Martin Rigney, the partner and only adviser at Sheffield-based Topps Rogers, has been fined £117,330 by the FSA and banned from the industry. He has shown a serious lack of both integrity and competence, the regulator said, in promoting UCIS..

The former CEO of Wyelands Bank, now living outside the United Kingdom, has reached a settlement with the PRA in which he was fined nearly £119,000 and agreed not to carry out regulated activities.

The FCA is predicting a "significant increase" in historic complaints against motor insurance brokers following two Financial Ombudsman decisions in favour of the consumer.