Central Bank imposes €575k fines

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has confirmed that the Central Bank has imposed fines totalling €575,640 to date this year in relation to administrative sanctions procedure cases.

In a written Dáil response to Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson, Michael McGrath, Mr Noonan confirmed that the fines concern four cases dealing with issues including breaches of large exposure requirements, transaction reporting failures, capital adequacy requirements and the Insurance Mediation Regulations.

One case related to the Central Bank fining Ava Capital Markets Ltd €165,000 for transaction reporting failures last month; while a second case saw it fine UniCredit Bank Ireland €315,000 for breaches of large exposure limits and the failure to have in place proper internal controls around large exposures.

The Central Bank imposed a third fine, earlier this month, totalling €95,000 on LGT Capital Partners (Ireland) Ltd for a breach of capital adequacy regulations.

Mr Noonan said: “With regard to the fourth, relating to a breach of professional indemnity insurance requirements, I have been informed by the Central Bank that this is one of a number of cases relating to a particular enforcement theme and a publicity statement relating to this case along with other cases dealing with the same enforcement theme will issue as a batch later in the year.”

He added: “I have been further informed by the Central Bank that its Enforcement Division currently has 29 open administrative sanctions procedure cases. These open cases cover the range of areas of the Central Bank’s supervisory responsibility.”

Mr Noonan said that the issues under investigation in the open administrative sanctions procedure cases include compliance with prudential requirements by banks and insurance companies; compliance with the Consumer Protection Code and compliance with requirements to have adequate systems and controls in place.

He also confirmed that the 29 cases include investigations into historical lending practices at Irish Nationwide Building Society, financial irregularities at the former Bloxham Stockbrokers and issues related to Quinn Insurance Limited.

The open cases further include, according to Mr Noonan, the Central Bank’s investigations into the IBRC and Custom House Capital, both of which are currently suspended, following consultation with the Garda, to avoid the risk of prejudicing any current or future criminal prosecutions.

Mr Noonan’s response statement also noted that in the Central Bank’s Annual Performance Statement for 2012, 841 Regulatory Actions were taken, before adding that the 2013 annual performance statement will be published “in due course” by the Central Bank. It is expected that the final number of Regulatory Actions for 2013 will be even higher than 2012, he said.

In relation to the Central Bank’s 2013 administrative sanctionsprocedure cases, Mr Noonan said that the bank had concluded 16 administrative sanctions procedure cases, imposing fines totalling €6.35m.

The above figure included a €5m fine imposed on Quinn Insurance Limited (Under Administration) that was waived due to the exceptional circumstances of the case.