FSA and FCA enforcement for client money and asset breaches

The FCA has issued a prohibition order banning Nurul Miah (also known as Neil Mia / Neil Miah) from working in financial services after the Solicitors Regulation Authority found he dishonestly caused or allowed more than £28m to be taken from client accounts without permission and that over £10m was missing and used for his own benefit. The misconduct took place between April 2019 and July 2020; the FCA concluded Mr Miah lacks the honesty and integrity required to work in financial services and has banned him to protect consumers and maintain confidence in the system. The FCA action publicises that Mr Miah cannot perform regulated functions; the FCA notice refers readers to the SRA’s own findings and press release for further detail.

The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) issued a decision dated 12 June 2026 (published 5 August 2026) in the case Alec Finch and Robert Finch v The Financial Conduct Authority. The FCA had decided to prohibit the two (formerly senior figures at AFL Insurance Brokers Limited, later Ambon Brokers) after a High Court judgment found they misused client money to fund AFL’s business, created false financial records to mislead a buyer and others, and concealed a significant client money deficit. The FCA said it would have imposed fines of £121,200 on Alec Finch and £169,800 on Robert Finch but accepted verifiable evidence that any penalty would cause each serious financial hardship, and the regulator removed them from the industry.

Robert Finch was one of two individuals (a father and son) the FCA decided to ban after finding they had misused client money at AFL Insurance Brokers Limited and prepared false financial records to mislead a buyer, leaving the firm with a client money deficit. The FCA issued Decision Notices and noted it would have imposed a financial penalty of £169,800 on Robert Finch but did not impose any fine because he provided verifiable evidence of serious financial hardship; the case was the subject of an Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) decision dated 12 June 2026 (published 5 August 2026).

On 16 July 2025 the FCA fined Barclays Bank UK PLC £3,093,600 for failures in its account‑opening procedures for a client money account used by WealthTek, concluding the bank had inadequate risk‑management systems. The FCA said Barclays breached Principle 3 (firms must organise and control their affairs responsibly and effectively) and SYSC 6.1.1R (requirement to have effective systems and controls). Barclays also agreed to make a voluntary payment of £6,281,757 to WealthTek clients and the FCA said the bank’s extensive co‑operation and that redress were taken into account in reducing the penalty.

The FCA fined Barclays Bank £783,800 in February 2022 for weak oversight of its business customer Premier FX, a small payments firm for which Barclays was the sole UK banker. Premier FX collapsed in 2018 after the death of its sole director, when it emerged it had been taking deposits it was not authorised to take and had not kept client money separate, leaving 167 customers — mostly British expats in Spain and Portugal — with losses of just over £10 million. The FCA found Barclays failed to act with due skill, care and diligence: it did not check that Premier FX's real activity matched what it expected, and it missed signs that the firm's internal controls were deficient. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount and voluntarily paid £10,076,943.75 so that every customer with an accepted claim got all their money back.

The FCA imposed a £37,745,000 penalty on Barclays Bank plc for failures in how it organised and controlled safe custody arrangements and for not arranging adequate protection for client safe custody assets. The breaches (of Principles 3 and 10 and multiple CASS rules) related to about £16.5bn of client safe custody assets held or arranged for between 1 November 2007 and 24 January 2012. Barclays qualified for a 30% early‑settlement discount, so the headline penalty was reduced from £53,921,619 to £37,745,000. The FCA said the failings left clients at risk of extra costs, lengthy delays or loss of assets had Barclays become insolvent during the Relevant Period.

Between 1 November 2002 and 8 July 2009 J.P. Morgan Securities Limited’s Futures & Options business failed to segregate client money: instead of holding overnight balances in a segregated money‑market account the firm held them in an unsegregated account with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. On 25 May 2010 the FSA fined JPMSL £33.32m for breach of Principle 10 (which requires firms to arrange adequate protection for client assets) and for breaches of the client money rules; the action was recorded on the FCA register on 3 June 2010. The average amount of unsegregated F&O client money over the relevant period was about US$8.55bn; JPMSL settled at an early stage and qualified for a 30% discount (the undiscounted fine would have been £47.6m, equal to 1% of that average).

The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland was fined £750,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in a Final Notice dated 5 February 2003 for failures in its PEP and ISA Department. Between November 1999 and August 2001 the firm’s implementation of its LISA PEP and ISA computer system, and the transfer of PEP customers’ accounts into that system (together with management failings), meant it could not reconcile the cash it held for PEP and ISA customers or state accurately how much customer money it held.