FCA fines and enforcement actions in 2010

The FSA published a Final Notice on 22 April 2010 fining Winterflood Securities Ltd £4,000,000 for market abuse connected to trading in Fundamental‑E Investments Plc. The regulator found Winterflood, acting as a market maker, mis‑used and delayed ‘rollovers’, creating a distortion in the market and misleading investors for about six months in 2004. The FSA said the trades had unusual features that should have alerted Winterflood to a clear and substantial risk of manipulation, but the firm continued the highly profitable trading rather than taking steps to ensure the trades were genuine. The FCA register records the action on 25 October 2010.

On 2 August 2010 the Financial Services Authority (the FSA) fined four members of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group £5,600,000 for breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 that took place between 15 December 2007 and 31 December 2008. The breaches were failures in systems and controls to prevent breaches of UK financial sanctions: RBSG did not adequately screen incoming cross‑border payments (and certain sterling and euro payments), missed the majority of trade‑finance SWIFT messages, failed to record and continuously screen directors and beneficial owners, and did not maintain effective ‘fuzzy matching’ parameters in its screening software. RBSG agreed an early settlement so qualified for a 30% (Stage 1) discount (the penalty would otherwise have been £8,000,000); once current management identified the problems they reported them to the FSA, implemented remedial screening and governance improvements and cooperated with the investigation.