Category: Enforcement

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Financial Conduct Authority imposes first fine on a claims management company

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a final notice fining a claims management firm, Professional Personal Claims Limited (PPC), £70,000 for misleading information published on its website and in printed materials. 

In summary, PPC:

– had used the logo of five major banks which the FCA said was likely to mislead its customers into believing they were submitting claims directly to the banks; and

– was sending generic and factually identical complaints to the banks when evidence specific to each client should have been presented.

The FCA has also published a press release.

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FCA fines firm for TCF breaches

On 20 November 2019, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) published a final notice imposing a fine of £1,867,900 on Henderson Investment Funds Limited for failing to treat customers fairly under Principle 6 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses.

The FCA decided the firm failed to treat its customers fairly because, between November 2011 and August 2016, the firm ”significantly” reduced the level of active management for retail investors (but not for institutional investors) which led to retail investors being treated “substantially different”.

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Final notice given to Interest Free Loans Limited refusing its application for authorisation (and provides a useful insight of the FCA’s expectations when making an application)

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has published a final notice given on 10 July 2019 to Interest Free Loans Limited refusing its application for permission to (amongst other things) enter into a regulated credit agreement for high-cost short-term credit as lender.

The final notice gives a useful insight into the FCA’s approach when considering an application for authorisation for credit-related regulated activities. For example, it lists the documents sought from the applicant (see paragraph 22) and the kind of information the FCA expects to see in policy and procedure documents (see paragraph 28).

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Information Commissioner’s Office fines Hall and Hanley Limited £120,000 for instigating the sending of almost three and a half million spam direct marketing texts

On 3 May 2019, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO) issued a monetary penalty notice (otherwise known as a fine) of £120,000 to Hall and Hanley Limited for sending unsolicited texts about potential payment protection insurance complaints to individuals.

The ICO decided Hall and Hanley Limited had breached Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EU Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) by instigating the sending over three and a half million unsolicited texts to individuals between January and June 2018. Whilst Hall and Hanley Limited did not send the text messages, the ICO was satisfied it was the instigator of those messages (and it did not have a valid consent to send them).

This is another example of the ICO using its powers under the PECR to issue significant monetary penalty notices to firms. For another example, see our earlier blog post.

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FCA publishes its ‘Approach to Supervision’ and ‘Approach to Enforcement’

On 24 April 2019, the UK Financial Conduct Authority published its ‘Approach to Supervision’ and its ‘Approach to Enforcement’.

Both of these approach documents provide a helpful insight to firms on the FCA’s approach to both supervision and enforcement.

The FCA’s approach to enforcement gives the following insights:

– The “overriding principle in our approach to enforcement is a commitment to achieve fair and just outcomes in response to misconduct. Wrongdoers must be held to account and our rules and requirements must be obeyed”;

– “Not all breach’s of our rules or requirements constitute serious misconduct. Many breaches can be addressed and remedied elsewhere (and we expect them to be) without the need for enforcement action, especially where the error is technical or minor”;

– “Firms and individuals should not wait for an investigation to end before acting in a way they think is right”; and

– “We aim to make sure the sanction is sufficient to deter the firm or individual from re-offending and deter others from offending”.

The FCA’s approach to supervision also gives the following insights:

– “We expect firms and their employees to meet [our] standards and hold them to account when they fail to meet them”;

– The supervisory principles (a) are forward looking, (b) focus on strategy and business models, (c) focus on culture and governance, (d) focus on individual and firm accountability, (e) are proportionate and risk-based, (f) involve two-way communication, (g) are co-ordinated and (h) put right systemic harm that has happened and stop it happening again;

– Culture and business models are still key things the FCA considers important;

– The FCA continues to adopt a decision-making framework (see, for example, Chapter 4; there are some real nuggets of information here).

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Information Commissioner’s Office fines Grove Pension Solutions Limited £40,000 for instigating the sending of almost two million spam direct marketing emails

On 26 March 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO) published a press release confirming it had fined Grove Pension Solutions Limited £40,000 for breaching the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) by being responsible for almost two million spam direct marketing emails.

The ICO decided Grove Pensions Solutions Limited had instructed a marketing agent to use third party email providers to carry out hosted marketing campaigns that advertised the company’s services.

Grove Pensions Solutions Limited has sought advice from a data protection consultancy and legal advice on its planned activity. But the ICO decided Grove Pensions Solutions Limited received “misleading advice”. For more information, please see the Monetary Penalty Notice.

This penalty notice shows two things: (a) the ICO’s continued enforcement action for breaches of PECR and (b) the importance of good advice.