FCA warns banks over potential corporate lending and insider dealing breaches

By Neasa MacErlean

The FCA is contacting a small number of banks on the basis of “credible reports” about some of them “failing to treat their corporate clients fairly when negotiating new or existing debt facilities”. If it finds further evidence of such transgressions it says it “will not hesitate to take action”. All firms that are active in both equity and lending markets are being instructed by the regulator to check that their controls are “appropriate for ensuring the proper treatment of clients, the identification and mitigation of conflicts of interest, and the handling of inside information”.