Financial Services Regulatory Enforcement Newsletter - Quarter 4 2015

Welcome to Maples and Calder's quarterly newsletter on financial services regulatory enforcement, where we provide you with updates on all current regulatory and enforcement topics, from global trends to in-depth analysis of Irish-specific issues.

ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS - IRELAND

The Central Bank of Ireland ("CBI") issued six warning notices against unauthorised investment firms during the fourth quarter of 2015.

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There were six enforcement sanctions issued against Irish regulated entities during this quarter.

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The CBI's on-going investigation of Custom House Capital Ltd (in liquidation) and persons concerned is listed for mention in the Examiner's Court on 4 February 2016.

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ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS - INTERNATIONAL

The UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") and the Prudential Regulation Authority introduced new whistleblowing rules which apply from 2016 to deposit takers with over £250 million in assets and insurance companies subject to the Solvency II Directive.

An asset management firm was fined £6m by the FCA for failing to put in place adequate controls for its fixed income business, for providing inaccurate information to the regulator and for failing to correct the inaccuracy for four months and a bank was fined £72m for failures in anti-money laundering compliance. The former head of an investment fund who was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment in January 2015 was banned from the financial services industry following his fraud convictions resulting in losses of US$536 million.

Also in the UK, one trader (following convictions in 2012 of two counts of fraud by abusing his position and a seven year term of imprisonment) was banned from performing any function in relation to any regulated financial activity. A former investment analyst was also fined £139,000 and banned from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity in the financial services industry and for failing to act with honesty and integrity (in particular for "cherry picking" transactions for hedge funds).

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") fined a bank US$37m in conjunction with the UK Serious Fraud Office for bribing Tanzanian government officials to award it a debt capital markets mandate. For the UK, the fine was the first levied under the Bribery Act 2010 and included a deferred prosecution agreement. The SEC lacked jurisdiction to...