The stockbroker and wealth manager WH Ireland has been fined £1.2m, and banned from taking on new corporate clients for 72 days, for having poor systems and controls that could have led to market abuse and insider trading.
The Financial Conduct Authority described the breach as “particularly serious” because of the amount of inside information that was regularly in the broker’s possession . It had 87 corporate and 9,000 private wealth clients with combined assets of £2.5bn at the time of the failings – in the first half of 2013.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, was critical of the company for not having acted sooner. “It is one thing to be given a chance; for the chance not to be taken up is especially culpable,” he said.
However, WH Ireland received a 20 per cent discount on the penalty for agreeing to a settlement. Without this, the fine would have been £1.5m.
Chief executive Richard Killingbeck said: “Since the beginning of my tenure in early 2013, significant changes have been made.”
On Tuesday the firm raised £1m through a share placing with its two largest investors at 90p. Shares closed at 90.5, up 7.1 per cent.
