In the UK, Margaret Cole (pictured), the head of enforcement and financial crime for the FSA, told the British Bankers Association in a speech yesterday that senior management at companies must take “clear responsibility” for managing financial crime risks and that the FSA would demand evidence of their attempts to do so.
Discussing insider trading, Cole told the BBA in her speech that the FSA would “continue to pursue our prosecution strategy for insider dealing and markets offences resolutely and assertively.” She stated that
We recognized that the history of insider-dealing prosecutions in the UK has not been a distinguished one, and that it continues to be difficult to root out and prove insider dealing. But despite the risks, we have taken steps to become a heavyweight criminal prosecutor.
She also stated that while fraud prosecutions will be passed on to the Serious Fraud Office, the FSA can still impose fines on activities linked to financial crime, as it did in the Aon case earlier this year. The Telegraph reports that Aon was charged £5.25m for “failing to maintain adequate systems to counter the risk of bribery and corruption.”
