Compliance Monitor

Sigma Broking has been penalised over £1 million for running a transaction reporting system that for five years submitted FCA reports which were nearly all inaccurate and incomplete. In total, nearly one million reports were filed in the period to December 2023.

Motor finance firms need to "refresh their estimates" of the amounts they are likely to pay to customers under the redress scheme which will start next year. Administration costs must also be factored into their provisions, according to the regulator, which will launch a six-week consultation in early October.

The former fund manager is heading to the Upper Tribunal to challenge a £5.9 million FCA fine and ban for exercising a "defective and unreasonably narrow understanding of his responsibilities" when director and investment manager of Woodford Management Ltd.

A threat assessment from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation is a wake-up call concerning the geopolitical use of cryptoassets to bypass traditional financial systems and compliance mechanisms. It is "almost certain" that suspected sanctions breaches are underreported and "highly likely" that UK cryptoasset firms have been exposed to malignant Russian and North Korean entities, reports Fred Saugman.

The legal battle over motor finance commissions has resulted in a partial victory for lenders: in two of three conjoined cases, the Supreme Court ruled that credit brokers owed no fiduciary duties to customers. Yet the Court's finding of an unfair relationship in the other claim may still expose firms to substantial payouts. Adam Samuel examines the judgment and its loose ends.