WH Ireland fined for controls failings

LONDON, Feb 23 (IFR) - Britain's financial regulator has fined broker and wealth manager WH Ireland £1.2m and blocked it from taking on new corporate broking clients for more than two months for having deficient controls to prevent market abuse.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said between January and June 2013, WH Ireland failed to ensure it had the proper systems and controls in place to prevent market abuse being detected or occurring.

It did not have controls in place to prevent inside information leaking, had inadequate personal account dealing rules for employees, and failed to maintain an effective written conflicts of interest policy, the FCA said.

It also had deficient compliance oversight, including the absence of a formal risk management framework for market abuse and inadequate post-trade surveillance systems.

The FCA said WH Ireland had been restricted for 72 days from taking on new clients in its corporate broking division.

At the time the failings took place, WH Ireland had about 9,000 private wealth clients with about £2.5bn of assets under management. It also had 87 corporate broking clients.

It said the failings were identified by a skilled person appointed by the FCA in a report of August 2013. (Reporting by Steve Slater)