Compliance Monitor

A former racehorse owner who was also the principal partner in a wealth management firm, WealthTek LLP, is to make his second appearance in court on 6 February, having been charged with nine criminal offences by the FCA.

The FCA has concluded its seventh successful action against cum-ex trading and withholding tax schemes.

Wholesale brokers in stocks, bonds, currencies and other capital markets need to work more closely with law enforcers and other public bodies in order to improve their detection of evolving risks of "money laundering through the markets" (MLTM), according to an FCA report.

With the UK Government scrambling to stimulate growth, pressure has fallen on the Financial Conduct Authority to carve back regulatory barriers. As reported in the Financial Times, [1] FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi warned that more would "go wrong" and called for politicians to define an acceptable level of harm to consumers. Nina Moffatt comments:

The FCA has imposed its initial penalty for transaction reporting breaches under MiFIR - failures that were detected by the regulator's monitoring system for market abuse. Infinox Capital Ltd, a broker based near the Bank of England, was fined £141,800, a relatively small sum that was reduced further by 30 per cent for co-operation, to £99,200.