The British financial watchdog has given Banque Havilland S.A., a Luxembourg-based private bank, a £10M fine for making and sending out a document that had bad advice for potential customers. In addition, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also given separate fines to three former employees of the bank’s London branch.
FCA has fined three former staff members of Banque Havilland SA’s London branch and banned them from working in financial services in the UK.
Edmund Rowland, the former CEO, was fined £352,000. David Weller, the former Senior Manager, was fined £54,000; and Vladimir Bolelyy, the former employee, was fined £14,200. This action comes after the FCA issued a warning notice in October 2021 regarding a breach of principles for businesses.
The British regulator said that Havilland was responsible for a plan that tried to damage Qatar’s economy:
By using dishonest trading methods to make it look like the value of Qatar’s bonds was different than it actually was.
Qatar Currency Manipulation Accused
The FCA declared that Havilland had attempted to damage Qatar’s economy by devaluing the Qatari Riyal. And severing its link to the US dollar.
The document was created by Bolelyy at the request of Rowland and with considerable assistance from Weller. It was also reported that Rowland and Bolelyy had shared the document with a representative of an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
The FCA explained:
Banque Havilland intended to present the document to representatives of countries it considered might have reasons to want to put economic pressure on Qatar, including the United Arab Emirates, as a way of marketing its services.
The Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, Therese Chambers, said:
Banque Havilland’s conduct actively encouraged the commission of financial crime, providing ideas for manipulative trading to someone it saw as having the political motivation to be potentially interested in such ideas. It barely needs stating, but such conduct is completely unacceptable.
The UK’s financial regulator recently issued fines to three people for running unlicensed cryptocurrency ATMs. Banque Havilland and Rowland, have taken the regulator’s decision to the Upper Tribunal, the highest court in the UK.
In addition, the regulator has continued to take action against cryptocurrency ATMs in other parts of the country, including:
- Exeter, Nottingham, and Sheffield, following its earlier crackdown in East London.
Read more: Tools for Brokers Integrates with MAP Fintech | Brokers Times
