City regulator sentences £ 320m in six months | Business

The city's regulator has inflicted more fines on businesses in the first half of 2019 than in the previous three full years, due to increasing pressures not to protect customers in the sector financial services.

In the six months to the end of June, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed 10 fines totaling £ 319.2 million, more than five times the annual total for 2018, or £ 60.5 million. Fines inflicted in the first half of 2019 exceeded the combined total of the previous 311 years by £ 311 million.

The biggest penalty in 2019 to date is the £ 102 million sterling imposed on Standard Chartered in April for its failures in the fight against money laundering that violated the sanctions imposed on Iran. .

Other significant penalties include £ 45.5 million for failing to disclose information about a £ 245 million fraud at its Reading branch and £ 29 million for misuse of service-related insurance. Geek Squad of Carphone Warehouse.

The regulator has also condemned the investment banks Goldman Sachs and UBS to pay respective fines of £ 34.4m and £ 27.6m, for reporting millions of erroneous transactions over the course of a decade .

On Wednesday, the CFA will hold its annual meeting at which its bosses will be confronted with questions about scandals and companies in trouble that campaigners should have addressed, according to activists, at an earlier stage.

The meeting is of particular importance as its executive director, Andrew Bailey, is one of the main candidates for the appointment of governor of the Bank of England. Bailey took office at FCA in 2016 and was considered more respectful of the city than his predecessor, Martin Wheatley, forced by former Chancellor George Osborne.

In May, more than a dozen MPs said that Mr Bailey should resign because of the failure of London Capital & Finance, an investment firm at the center of a scandal of 236 million pounds that cost thousands of individual investors. The FCA enforcement team was warned three years ago against the company but did not act.

The Treasury Selection Committee also asked if the FCA was "asleep at the wheel" when the issues were facing the Woodford Equity Income Fund. The fund, run by Neil Woodford, high-level badet manager, has blocked withdrawals last month after being overwhelmed by demand from investors wanting to withdraw their cash after mediocre market bets.

FCA also wonders how RBS and Bank of Scotland, now part of the Lloyds Banking Group, have treated their business clients. The activists of the two banks' customers claim that the regulator has not defended the small businesses whose banks have fallen prey.

Neil Mitchell, who is campaigning for the compensation of former corporate clients of GRG's disgraced RBS unit, said: "The FCA is finally tackling some of the financial crime in the city – putting the focus on finally. So what?"

Mitchell said he and other activists would attend the meeting. "There will be uncomfortable questions for the president and the general manager, especially after the past year."

However, Nick Price, a specialist in commercial and regulatory litigation at the law firm Osborne Clarke, said that under the key figures, the fines imposed by the FCA were "as usual". Fines inflicted on the FCA peaked at nearly £ 1.5 billion under Wheatley in 2014.

"Fines have increased this year, but a few years ago they were much higher," said Price.

Price said the CFA's ability to control the financial sector could be hampered by the additional work it should do after Brexit, especially if no agreement is reached.

"All trends are likely to be vulnerable to the impact of Brexit," said Price. "It remains to be seen whether the FCA will have the resources to deal with the post-Brexit unknowns and will maintain its current regulatory priorities."

FCA declined to comment.