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’JC Flower’s UK boss fined and banned for fake invoice scheme
Extraordinary, this — so we’ll just slam up the details from the FSA:
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today fined Ravi Shankar Sinha £2.867 million for fraudulently obtaining £1.367 million for himself from a company owned by a private equity fund advised by JC Flowers by means of a fictitious invoicing scheme.
FSA fines Einhorn
Or, the UK’s FSA slaps a £7.2m fine on David Einhorn and Greenlight Capital over trading in Punch Taverns shares in 2009. First, the case from the FSA:
On 9 June 2009, Einhorn was a party to a telephone conference in which it was disclosed to him by a corporate broker acting on behalf of Punch Taverns Plc that Punch was at an advanced stage of the process towards a significant equity fundraising.
Hedge bashers
This document had previously passed this correspondent by: DP12/1 - Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. H/T Sarah Butcher.
Open that, hit control F and type “remuneration.”
Back to the BISTRO for today’s securitisations — Part 2
In Part 1, FT Alphaville discussed the recent resurgence of so-called “BISTRO-type” securitisation deals. These allow banks to lower their capital requirements and defer losses by buying protection on portfolios of assets.
Don’t forget the advisers
Alternative title: The bull that got away.
Everyone else has got it in the neck for the failure of RBS, so it’s only right that we remember those who masterminded the disastrous acquisition of ABN Amro.
[Something for the weekend] The SGP without stability or growth
Ah, the Stability and Growth Pact. You remember. Joining the SGP, members promised fiscal restraint, and in return were allowed to junk their soggy old currencies for a Deutschemark with a suntan. They all promised to keep the gap between revenue and spending to below 3 per cent of GDP,
Emergency repairs at Homeserve
Oh what fun, another UK mis-selling scandal. Only don’t call it that because what’s been going on at Homeserve, the UK’s leading home emergency insurance provider, is something different… apparently.
The FSA takes pre-emptive action on liquidity swaps
Bank of England: Hey, FSA guys, don’t mean to tell how to do your job, but pssst! look at “collateral swaps” ok?
FSA: Collateral swaps? Do you mean “liquidity swaps”? We don’t think even Dodd-Frank looks at those..
UBS trading losses – the regulatory response
Notice anything unusual about this press release hot off the regulatory press?
UBS trading losses: FSA and FINMA to launch investigation
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) are launching a comprehensive independent investigation into the events surrounding the trading losses incurred by UBS AG in its London operations.
Regulatory arbitrage with Tony & Nat – redux
More on Tony Hayward’s first big oil deal at his new investment vehicle Vallares– the $2.1bn acquisition, via a reverse takeover, of Turkish E&P company Genel Energy.
We have already mused on whether Genel would be allowed to list in London given the share dealing misdemeanour’s of its executive team,
Algos & Demons
Spoof Wars continues.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has obtained an interim High Court injunction preventing a number of companies and individuals from manipulating the market in UK-listed shares.
28 Day-Traders Later
Games of spoof can be very expensive. Just ask Mike Ashley, who reportedly lost £200,000 when playing against his advisors at Merrill Lynch. Or ask Peter Beck, the Canadian day-trading evangelist who has lost £8m to the FSA.
Hargreaves LansDOWN
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today [Monday] published rules on platforms regulation. This follows a review of the regulation of platforms in the context of the objectives of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
HBOS uncovered
What’s this that has quietly appeared in the correspondence section of the Treasury Select Committee website?
It’s only a letter from FSA chairman Adair Turner announcing plans to publish (yes publish) a report into the downfall of fat bloke finance house HBOS.
FSA says ‘no’ on Bank of Ireland
A swift response from the UK’s Financial Services Authority for once.
Holders of Bristol & West permanent interest-bearing shares (Pibs), a type of subordinated debt, last week asked the FSA to look into Bank of Ireland’s debt restructuring.
The popping of Southsea
This piece of news slipped most of the world by…
A court order has been made to place Southsea Mortgage and Investment Company into the Bank Insolvency Procedure and appoint BDO LLP as the bank liquidator.
CPP’s identity crisis – Part II
The downgrades are starting to rain down on CPP, the credit card and identity theft insurer that’s attracted some unwanted regulatory heat.
Joint broker JPMorgan has cut its forecasts and is worried the FSA probe revealed late on Monday could land CPP with a large fine,
CPP’s identity crisis
The price action on Tuesday morning in CPP Group, London’s latest IPO flop, following its clash with the FSA.
For context, the March 2010 float price was 235p. Ouch.
FSA vs CPPGroup
Profit warning du soir:
CPPGroup Plc (“CPP” or “the Group”) announces that it is in discussions with the FSA in relation to certain issues surrounding the sale of the Group’s Card Protection and Identity Protection products. The FSA’s investigation only relates to such of the Group’s products as are sold into the UK,
The FSA is concerned about ETFs
The UK financial regulator the FSA appears (finally) to be on to the complexity issue that has been affecting the ETF industry for a long while now.
From the FSA’s ‘Retail Conduct Risk Outlook 2011″
Value for money, with the FSA
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today announced its proposed Annual Funding Requirement (AFR) for 2011/12. The AFR for 2011/12 is £500.5m, up from £454.7m in 2010/11, a gross increase of 10.1% in overall funding.
House price rant
Pressure can do funny things. Just ask Steve Morgan.
The chairman and biggest shareholder of housebuilder Redrow has let rip at the company’s AGM on Thursday morning, accusing the government and regulators of deliberately suppressing housing demand at the very time a chronic housing shortage is laying the foundations for the next boom and bust cycle.
What’s going on inside the FSA?
Well, this is worrying. When even Britain’s Financial Services Authority acknowledges its own personnel problems, it must be serious.
From a memorandum the FSA recently sent to the Treasury Select Committee,
FSA reopens the Lehman files
Remember the just-who-is-a-sophisticated-investor debate around the Abacus case against Goldman Sachs earlier this year?
Here’s a strange UK coda.
The UK’s Financial Services Authority dished out not one but three fines on Wednesday to advisers which failed to give suitable guidance on structured products backed by Lehman Brothers.
FSA fine watch
Another day and another fine from the Financial Services Authority.
This time it’s Goldman Sachs on the receiving end. A £25m hit (reduced to £17.5m for good behaviour) for the heinous crime of not telling the FSA it was being investigated by the SEC over the Fab Fabrice/Abacus CDO case.
The FSA’s finance fix (Part III): dampening profits
Continued from Part II.
A valuation-based approach may be the FSA’s preferred option for fixing banks’ trading books and fortifying them against future risk, but it’s difficult, to say the least. The very thing the FSA is trying to remedy — inconsistent valuations — seem endemic in the financial system:
The FSA’s finance fix (Part II): attacking the arbitrage
Continued from Part I.
The idea that banks arbitraged accounting categories to avoid mark-to-market losses as credit markets seized up in 2008 and 2009, won’t exactly be surprising. Since 1996, financials have been allowed to choose whether to put assets in their banking book — held at amortised cost — or in their trading books,