Goldman Sachs fined £17.5 m for FSA compliancy failings
09 September 2010 at 15:56
Goldman Sachs International (GSI) has been fined £17.5 million for breaching Financial Services Authority (FSA) compliance rules, one of the largest penalties ever issued by the regulator.
It relates to the banking giant's failure to ensure that it had adequate systems and controls in place to enable it to comply with its obligations regarding UK regulatory reporting.
Earlier this year, an investigation carried out by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into Abacus, which was structured by GSI's US affiliate, Goldman Sachs & Co, and marketed to the UK's institutional investors by GSI.
The investigation found that GSI did not have effective procedures in place to ensure that its compliance department was made aware of the SEC investigation so that it could consider whether any notifications needed to be made to the FSA.
Commenting on the case and fine, Margaret Cole, managing director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: "We have repeatedly stressed the importance of firms self-reporting regulatory issues to the FSA in a timely way. This penalty should send a message of the need to have their firm's UK reporting obligations at the forefront of their minds."
Posted by James Harrison 