FCA decision notices

The FCA has decided to ban Daniel Thomas from working in financial services and fined him £742,700 after finding he recklessly gave defined-benefit pension transfer advice he was not qualified or authorised to give. Thomas — a director and financial adviser at DPT Financial Solutions — advised 53 clients about 63 transfers over five years, repeatedly misled clients and pension providers about his qualifications, destroyed client records, provided misleading information to his principal firm (his business was an appointed representative) and failed to cooperate with the FCA’s investigation. The action is a Decision Notice dated 3 September 2026; Thomas has referred the Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal and the FCA will take no further action until the Tribunal reaches its decision.

On 3 March 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a Decision Notice fining Crispin Odey, founder and majority owner of Odey Asset Management (OAM), £1,835,200 and banning him from working in UK financial services for a lack of integrity. Between December 2021 and November 2022 Mr Odey was facing an internal disciplinary process for breaching a final written warning about his behaviour towards female staff. The FCA found that he twice dismissed OAM's executive committee to stop that process, appointed himself its sole member, and in doing so caused OAM to breach the rules requiring an investment manager to be run by at least two people. Mr Odey referred the notice to the Upper Tribunal. On 14 September 2026 the Tribunal dismissed his challenge, upheld all five of the FCA's allegations and the ban, and reduced the fine to £1.53 million because an uplift the FCA had applied for aggravating factors should not have been included. The FCA is expected to issue a Final Notice reflecting the Tribunal's decision.

The FCA issued a Decision Notice on 30 May 2023 proposing to prohibit James Edward Staley from performing any senior management or significant influence function and to impose a fine of £1,812,800. The Decision Notice says Mr Staley breached Individual Conduct Rule 1 (must act with integrity), Individual Conduct Rule 3 (must be open and cooperative with the FCA and other regulators) and Senior Manager Conduct Rule 4 (must disclose appropriately information the FCA would reasonably expect to be told). Mr Staley has referred the Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal, so the FCA’s findings are provisional and the proposed prohibition and fine have no effect while the Tribunal decides the case.

In 2022 the FCA decided to fine Barclays a total of £50 million for failing to tell the market about side arrangements with Qatari investors during its two emergency capital raisings in June and October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Barclays had agreed to pay a Qatari entity £322 million under two "advisory" agreements that were really the price of the Qataris' investment, and the FCA found its conduct in the October 2008 fundraising was reckless and lacked integrity, breaching the Listing Rules that require companies to give investors accurate information. Barclays referred the decision to the Upper Tribunal, but in November 2024 it withdrew that challenge to draw a line under the 16-year-old matter; the FCA then issued final notices imposing a reduced penalty of £40 million, while noting that Barclays does not accept the findings.