Member Article

Lloyds fined £218 million for "serious misconduct"

Lloyds Banking Group has been fined a total of £218 million for “serious misconduct” including a £105 million fine from the Financial Conduct Authority.

The £105 million total fine is the joint third highest ever imposed by the FCA or its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority.

Lloyds was also fined $105 million by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and $86 million by the U.S. Department of Justice.

£70 million of the FCA fine relates to attempts to manipulate the fees payable to the Bank of England for the firms’ participation in the SLS, a taxpayer-backed government scheme designed to support the UK’s banks during the financial crisis.

Lloyds was found guilty of manipulating the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for yen and sterling and tried to rig the rate for yen, sterling and the US dollar, said the US legal order.

Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “The firms were a significant beneficiary of financial assistance from the Bank of England through the SLS. Colluding to benefit the firms at the expense, ultimately, of the UK taxpayer was unacceptable.

“This falls well short of the standards the FCA and the market is entitled to expect from regulated firms.

“The abuse of the SLS is a novel feature of this case but the underlying conduct and the underlying failings - to identify, mitigate and monitor for obvious risks - are not new.

“If trust in financial services is to be restored then market participants need to ensure they are learning the lessons from, and avoiding the mistakes of, their peers. Our enforcement actions are an important source of information to help them do this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .