The Bank has a variety of enforcement and other formal powers.
Related links
- PS1/24 - The Bank of England's approach to enforcement
- The Bank's investigation referral criteria
- The Bank's regulatory investigations guide
What is the role of enforcement?
Through regulation, the Bank sets out rules, and develops standards and policies that set out what we require and expect of PRA-authorised firms, financial market infrastructures (‘FMIs’) and those involved in their management. Through supervision, the Bank monitors and assesses whether PRA -authorised firms and FMIs are meeting our requirements and expectations. See the Bank’s approach to supervision of FMIs.
Where firms are not meeting our requirements and expectations, the Bank can take action – supervisory or enforcement – to reduce the risks that might arise. This can be by way of imposing a financial penalty or public censure. The Bank can also prohibit an individual from working in the regulated financial services sector.
The Bank’s approach to enforcement supports and supplements our regulatory and supervisory tools by ensuring that we have credible mechanisms for holding our regulated community to account where they do not meet our requirements and expectations and providing a wider deterrent effect. We are committed to holding individuals to account and, where appropriate, taking regulatory and/or enforcement action against those individuals who breach our standards.
This way we clearly set out, for the benefit of the whole regulated community, the actions and standards of behaviour we consider unacceptable.
Additional related links
- The Bank’s approach to enforcement: statutory statements of policy and procedure
- Enforcement Decision Making Committee
- PRA’s approach to supervision of the banking and insurance sectors
- CP9/23 – The Bank of England’s approach to enforcement: proposed changes and clarifications
- The Bank of England’s approach to enforcement: a decade in the making − speech by Oliver Dearie
- The Bank of England’s approach to enforcement: proposed changes to statements of policy and procedure following the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023
- The Bank’s approach to Financial Market Infrastructures supervision
How do we exercise our investigation and enforcement powers?
Our Approach to Enforcement explains what we expect of PRA-authorised firms and FMIs and how we use our powers.
The Bank has a number of investigatory and enforcement powers under the various statutory regimes for which it has regulatory responsibility, specifically:
- Prudential supervision by the PRA;
- Supervision of FMIs;
- Resolution; and
- The Scottish and Northern Ireland banknotes regime
The Approach to Enforcement provides an overview of the Bank’s enforcement powers under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (‘FSMA’), the Banking Act (‘BA09’) and any other legislation under which the Bank has civil or criminal enforcement powers.
Before taking disciplinary action against a firm or an individual, we usually investigate whether (and if so, which) regulatory requirements have been breached. Our Approach to Enforcement includes statements of policy and procedure relating to:
- statutory notices and decision making
- financial penalties
- suspensions and restrictions
- settlement
- publicity of regulatory action
the conduct of interviews pursuant to section 169(7) FSMA.
For more information on the Bank’s Statement of Policy and procedure which applies to contested PRA enforcement cases please see the Enforcement Decision Making Committeepage.
The 'Bank’s Investigation Referral Criteria’ sets out the considerations we take into account when deciding whether or not it is appropriate for us to investigate a matter, and to determine which of our responses and/or investigation tools is appropriate.
The Bank’s ‘Regulatory Investigations Guide’ provides, at a high level, a ‘roadmap’ of our investigation and enforcement processes. It is intended as a reference for firms and individuals who are the subjects (or potential subjects) of a PRA or FMI investigation, and their advisors.
How have our investigation and enforcement powers developed?
The Bank have a number of investigatory and enforcement powers under various statutory regimes.
To date the Bank has only taken enforcement action in its capacity as the Prudential Regulation Authority.
A summary of the PRA’s approach to enforcement was provided in a speech ‘The PRA’s approach to enforcement’ by Miles Bake, former Head of Enforcement and Litigation published on 31 July 2019. This speech covered: the rationale for enforcement; examples of enforcement by the PRA’s in action; and the PRA’s enforcement ‘agenda’. It also explains how enforcement is aligned with and supports the PRA’s objectives and strategic goals.
The Bank also has enforcement and investigatory powers where the Bank (rather than the PRA) is the relevant regulator – for example in relation to FMIs. The relevant policy statements in relation to the enforcement powers of the Bank were published separately to the PRA Approach to Enforcement.
In May 2023, the Bank published a Consultation Paper – CP 9/23which sought to replace and consolidate all relevant policies and procedures in relation to the Bank’s enforcement powers in a single Bank Approach to Enforcement. The proposals in CP 9/23 were explained in a speech by Olie Dearie, the Head of the Bank’s Enforcement and Litigation Division which was published on 21 June 2023.
In addition to the creation of a single Bank Approach to Enforcement, the proposals set out in CP9/23 included the following:
- creating a new early account scheme (EAS) for appropriate cases. This would provide a mechanism for subjects of PRA and FMI investigations to provide a full account, and all relevant material, to use at the outset of investigations;
- incentivising early admissions by subjects through the introduction of an enhanced settlement discount in appropriate cases of up to 50%;
- changing how the Bank calculates financial penalties for PRA firms to provide more consistency, and to better align with our approach with the PRA’s approach to supervising firms; and
- updating the serious financial hardship thresholds at which we will consider a reduction in fines for individuals.
Following the consultation, the Bank published its Policy Statement – PS 1/24 – and Approach to Enforcementon 30 January 2024.
How has the Bank used its enforcement powers?
Below are details of the enforcement actions that we have taken to date, with links to the underlying Final or Decision Notices.
-
17 May 2024 Citigroup Global Markets Limited - Final Notice Financial Penalty:£33,880,000 29 January 2024 HSBC - Final Notice Financial Penalty: £57,417,500
10 January 2024 Mr Iain Mark Hunter - Final Notice Financial Penalty: £118,808and undertaking not to apply for or perform any function in relation to any regulated activity -
21 July 2023 Credit Suisse - Final Notice Financial Penalty: £87,082,000 13 April 2023 Mr Carlos Abarca – Final Notice Financial Penalty: £81,620 4 April 2023
Wyelands Bank Plc –Final Notice
Public Censure
-
20 December 2022 TSB Bank –Final Notice Financial Penalty: £27,000,000* 18 October 2022 MS Amlin Underwriting Limited – Final Notice Financial Penalty: £9,695,000
-
21 December 2021 Metro Bank – Final Notice Financial Penalty: £5,376,000
17 December 2021 Standard Chartered Bank – Final Notice Financial Penalty: £46,550,000
-
21 October 2020 Goldman Sachs International – Final Notice Financial Penalty: £48,308,400* 6 February 2020 Mr Michael Grimsdale - FinalNotice Prohibition 6 February 2020 Mr Richard Nichols - FinalNotice Public Censure and Prohibition 6 February 2020 Ms Gillian Birkett - FinalNotice Public Censure 6 February 2020 Mr Phil Neale - FinalNotice Public Censure
-
26 November 2019 Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Citibank N.A. London Branch and Citibank Europe Plc - FinalNotice Opens in a new window Financial Penalty: £43,890,000 30 September 2019 Mr Stuart Forsyth - DecisionNotice Opens in a new window Financial Penalty: £76,180 and Prohibition* 29 May 2019 Financial Penalty: £1,890,000*
-
7 November 2018 Mr Akira Kamiya - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £22,700 7 November 2018 Mr Takami Onodera - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £14,945 11 May 2018 Mr James Staley - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £321,230*
-
9 February 2017 The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Limited and MUFG Securities EMEA plc - FinalNotice Financial Penalties: £17,850,000 and
£8,925,000 respectively
-
8 April 2016 QIB(UK) Plc - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £1,384,950 1 February 2016 Mr Colin McIntosh - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £25,173* and Prohibition 1 February 2016 Millburn Insurance Company Limited - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £2,863,066
14 January 2016 Mr Barry Tootell - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £173,802 and Prohibition 14 January 2016 Mr Keith Alderson - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £88,890 and Prohibition
-
12 November 2015
Financial Penalty: £1,278,165 10 August 2015 The Co-operative Bank plc - FinalNotice Public Censure
-
20 November 2014 Royal Bank of Scotland plc, National Westminster Bank plc and Ulster Bank Ltd - FinalNotice Financial Penalty: £14,000,000*
* Joint action with FCA. The FCA imposed separate enforcement sanctions.
Open investigations
We also provide details of how many investigations are open at any time. For the purposes of these statistics, an investigation is considered open from the time that we have appointed investigators until either it is closed, or a Settlement Agreement is entered into or, in contested cases, a Final Notice under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or a Notice under the Banking Act 2009 is issued.
Each firm or individual under investigation is counted for these purposes, even if they are related (eg if we are investigating a firm and two individuals at said firm, that would count as three investigations).
Total open investigations at the end of each year – previous five years
* This includes one matter which was referred to the Upper Tribunal. Previous versions of this table included only investigations conducted by the Bank in its capacity as the PRA. The table now also includes investigations conducted by the Bank into FMIs and service providers specified by His Majesty’s Treasury in relation to a recognised payment system.
31 December 2023 | 31 December 2022 | 31 December 2021 | 31 December 2020 | 31 December 2019 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Firms | 5 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 8 |
Individuals | 11 | 15 | 11 | 17 | 16* |
Total | 16 | 23 | 18 | 30 | 24* |
We do not usually make public the fact that we are investigating a particular firm or individual.
Statutory supervisory powers
The Bank of England also has various supervisory powers under relevant legislation.
For example, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 also grants the PRA formal powers, which can be used in a supervisory context. For example, we can vary a PRA-authorised firm’s permissions to undertake regulated activities or require a firm to undertake or stop an action. We can also approve (subject to conditions) an application for an individual to perform a senior (insurance) management function. Our approach to deploying these powers is set out in the PRA's approach documents.
Use of these powers does not mean that a firm has breached our rules or requirements.
We have used these powers in a number of instances. In certain circ*mstances, in line with legal requirements, these are made public. For example, we have made the following uses of its statutory powers public:
Date | Matter |
---|---|
20 November 2014 | Final Notice to Lower Iveagh Credit Union Limited (in Liquidation) cancelling its permissions. |
23 May 2016 | Final Notice to Spa Credit Union Limited cancelling its permissions. |
9 May 2018 | Voluntary Requirements imposed on Barclays Bank plc and Barclays Bank UK plc concerning whistleblowing. |
23 December 2019 | Voluntary Requirements imposed on Society of Lloyds concerning whistleblowing. |
21 December 2020 | Voluntary Requirements imposed on Tokio Marine Kiln Insurance Limited and Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates Limited concerning whistleblowing. |
16 August 2022 | Notice to Sonali Bank (UK) Limited. |
27 August 2024 | Decision Notice to . |
27 August 2024 | Decision Notice to South Airdrie Credit Union Limited. |
4 September 2024 | First Supervisory Notice to PCF Bank Limited |
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This page was last updated 04 September 2024