Banking standards commission to urge regulator to impose greater personal accountability on bank executives

The parliamentary panel set up to reform standards in British banking is to demand an overhaul of the system for fining errant lenders and urge the imposition of a 'duty of care' on top executives. I have learnt that the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS) is to recommend that the City regulator revamps the system under which financial institutions are punished for misbehaviour. In its final report, which will be published in the next few days, the Commission will urge the Financial Conduct Authority to devise a more systematic framework for handing out financial penalties following a string of scandals in the sector. The PCBS will point to inconsistent fines issued by regulators in the past, such as a £7m penalty for Alliance & Leicester in 2008 for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) and a £30m settlement this year with Prudential, the insurer, over disclosures it made relating to a big acquisition in 2010. The Commission will also outline what it will call a new "duty of care" for bank executives, including potentially making them personally liable for a repetition of the PPI scandal or similar conduct failures......Read more here