2014 was a bumper year for regulators

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 10 Μαΐου 2015 - 05:48

France's AMF issued its biggest-ever amount of financial penalties last year. The regulator said this demonstrated its increasingly "severe" stance towards wrongdoing in the market.

The amount of financial penalties issued by the regulator, €33m, was the result of 68 investigations. In total, AMF issued 79 financial penalties against 30 legal entities and 49 individuals.

"This cumulative amount, which is the highest since the AMF's creation, is a sign of increased severity over the years," the regulator said in its annual report published last week.

The €33m in penalties handed out by the French regulator, however, pales in comparison with the fines imposed by its equivalent bodies in the US and the UK.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a record 755 enforcement actions and obtained $4.16bn from penalties and disgorgement, the repayment of ill-gotten gains, for the 2013/14 fiscal year. This was a significant increase on the $3.4bn the SEC obtained in 2012/13.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority levied a record £1.4bn of fines in 2014, the bulk of which was accounted for by the £1.1bn paid by five banks to settle allegations over manipulation of the foreign-exchange market.

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The £233m fine paid by UBS, the Swiss bank, to the FCA as part of the deal was the watchdog's single-highest penalty ever.

Kinetic Partners, a financial services consultancy, carried out research with 300 finance professionals worldwide in January that indicated market abuse is expected to be one of the primary focuses of regulators in 2015.

Simon Appleton, director at Kinetic, said: "Financial services professionals are right to expect regulators to continue to clamp down hard on market abuse, such as insider trading, market manipulation and financial fraud."

"These already account for many of the fines in key jurisdictions, and the past year has continued to see regulators impose large fines."

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