The City regulator has fined Halifax Bank of Scotland £45.5m for failing to disclose information on the £245m fraud scandal at the bank’s Reading branch for two years after signs were first discovered.
The fine is in relation to a scheme by managers at HBOS’s Reading branch that left hundreds of people in severe financial difficulties.
The FCA said there had been “insufficient challenge, scrutiny or inquiry across the organisation and from top to bottom”
The fine is in relation to a scheme by managers at HBOS’s Reading branch that left hundreds of people in severe financial difficulties.
The FCA said there had been “insufficient challenge, scrutiny or inquiry across the organisation and from top to bottom”
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Bank of Scotland failed to alert the regulator and the police about suspicions of fraud at its Reading branch when those suspicions first became apparent. BOS’s failures caused delays to the investigations by both the FCA and Thames Valley police. There is no evidence anyone properly addressed their mind to this matter or its consequences. The result risked substantial prejudice to the interests of justice, delaying scrutiny of the fraud by regulators, the start of criminal proceedings as well as the payment of compensation to customers.”
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