Fexco fined €80,000 over breaches

THE stockbroking arm of financial services/payment solutions group Fexco has been fined €80,000 by the Financial Regulator for a number of breaches of the Stock Exchange Act, relating to the administration of customer money.

According to the regulator, it found that Fexco Stockbroking had failed to “develop and maintain systems to monitor and control credit risk”.

The regulator did add, however, that no customer of Fexco suffered any monetary loss and none made any formal complaints regarding the breaches.

It said that Fexco had co-operated with the examination and that the matter was now closed. The problem centred on a perceived shortage of relevant documentation with regard to clients’ funds.

In a statement, the regulator said: “The breaches relate to a number of failures in respect of requirements issued pursuant to section 52 of the Stock Exchange Act 1995 and requirements 2.3 and 2.4 of the Prudential Handbook for Investment and Stockbroking Firms.”

A spokesperson for Fexco said that while this was the case, there had never been any confusion on the company’s part over the differentiation between client money and company money. They added that while the €80,000 fine had not been paid yet, it would be “in the very near future” and that the company has rectified the majority of the breaches.

They also said that “no stone would be left unturned”, on the part of the company, in striving to maintain 100% compliance.