UK: the FSA flexes its muscles - part 2 - enforcement strategies

The UK's Financial Services Authority's Director of Enforcement, Margaret Cole, delivered a speech today which highlights further the approach now being taken by the FSA with regard to enforcement. The following extracts illustrate this point:

We have frequently stressed the importance of senior management responsibility and oversight. But, some of you might think that we haven’t matched our words with decisive action. Well, a recent study by Deloitte for the OFT confirmed what we already suspected, that action against individuals has a lot greater impact in terms of deterrence than action against firms ... you can expect to see more Supervision and Enforcement focus on individuals ... We’ve made a strategic decision to investigate more individuals

... this year we have brought 3 criminal prosecutions for insider dealing and we have more in the pipeline ... We feel that the threat of civil fines hasn’t worked as well as we would have liked. We’re convinced that the threat of a custodial sentence is a much more significant deterrent"

Note also this earlier post concerning market abuse.