Two brokers have been banned from senior positions in the financial sector and fined for misconduct relating to Libor.
The FCA has banned David Caplin, former chief executive of Martin Brokers (UK) Ltd, and Jeremy Kraft, former compliance officer of the same firm, because it claimed their failings contributed to a culture that permitted Libor manipulation to take place.
Mr Caplin has been fined £210,000 for allowing a culture to develop at Martins which prioritised profits to the detriment of regulatory compliance, and was reluctant for compliance to have any role in broker oversight.
Meanwhile Mr Kraft was fined £105,000 because he did not properly oversee brokers and did not challenge Mr Caplin on compliance matters. The FCA also said he delegated responsibilities to unqualified members of staff and failed to act on the advice of an external compliance consultancy.
Georgina Philippou, acting director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Both individuals also ignored obvious risks, such as the risk that brokers would give or accept inducements.”
Background box
Last year Martin Brokers (UK) Ltd was fined £630,000 for misconduct relating to Libor while Lloyds Banking Group was fined £105m for serious misconduct relating to the Special Liquidity Scheme, the Repo Rate benchmark and Libor.
In 2013 Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £87.5m, and Icap Europe was fined £14m, for misconduct relating to Libor, while in 2012 UBS AG was fined £160m.
In 2012 Barclays was fined £59.5m by the FSA, $160m (£107m) by the United Stated Department of Justice and $200m (£133m) by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor rates.
