Fines by Financial Conduct Authority grow 10 times
The Financial Conduct Authority has doled out £229.4m of penalties this year
Rogue banks, insurers and investment firms have been hit with a tenfold increase in fines by the City watchdog.
The Financial Conduct Authority has doled out £229.4million of penalties this year, up from £22.2million in 2016.
The increase suggests the regulator is taking a tough line on bad behaviour under Andrew Bailey, who took over in July.
This year’s figures were boosted by a £163million fine in January for German lender Deutsche Bank, which helped shady Russian businessmen move £7.5billion of suspect cash.
But although the figure is significantly up on the previous year, it is still the second-lowest haul from fines in the past five years.
Penalties shot up as investigators got to grips with a string of scandals after the financial crisis, peaking at a record £1.4billion in 2014 when the Libor interest rate-rigging debacle was at its height.
The FCA banned 18 people from working in finance this year, the lowest since the crisis.