Bank of England fines former CEO of Wyelands Bank

By Huw Jones and Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) -The Bank of England has fined Wyelands Bank's former CEO Iain Hunter 118,808 pounds ($151,338) for failing to ensure the lender had adequate systems and controls.

Wyelands Bank, now wound down, was part of the Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance metals-to-finance empire and the largest client of Greensill Capital, the financing company that went bust in 2021 after one of its main insurers declined to renew its cover.

The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said it has fined Hunter for breaching rules that make senior managers at financial firms directly accountable for monitoring large exposures.

Hunter – who now works at GFG Alliance in a governance role, according to his profile on the LinkedIn network – did not respond immediately to a request for comment via LinkedIn.

GFG Alliance declined to comment.

"Mr Hunter failed both to act with due skill, care and diligence, and to take reasonable steps to ensure that Wyelands had adequate systems and controls in relation to the large exposures regime and PRA record keeping requirements," the PRA statement said.

Hunter gave an undertaking to the regulator that he would not work in a regulated UK financial sector role in future, the PRA said.

The PRA said Hunter agreed to settle after the end of the discount period and therefore did not qualify for a 30% reduction on his fine.

Wyelands was censured by the Bank of England last year for "wide-ranging significant regulatory failures".

($1 = 0.7851 pounds)

(Reporting by Huw Jones and Iain WithersEditing by Jason Neely and David Goodman)