Four top executives at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are to lose their bonuses.
It comes after a highly critical report on the way the regulator leaked highly sensitive information to the media. An independent report found that the FCA's strategy was "high-risk, poorly supervised and inadequately controlled". A story, leaked to the Daily Telegraph paper in March this year, contained price-sensitive information. The resulting article claimed that the FCA was planning an investigation of 30 million pension policies, some of which had been sold as long ago as the 1970s. Billions of pounds were wiped of the share prices of big insurance companies.
Price sensitivityThe FCA said it accepted the criticisms and apologised for its mistakes. The report into its conduct, written by Simon Davis of law firm Clifford Chance, said the FCA had not addressed the issue of whether the information given out might be price sensitive. Martin Wheatley, the head of the FCA, will lose a bonus of up to £115,000 this year, although he escapes serious criticism in the report. Three other executives will also receive no bonuses.....Read more here