The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Paul Steel of IFA firm Estate Matters Financial Ltd (EMF) from working in financial services.
This comes years after the UK regulator commenced civil proceedings against Steel and his wife Jacqueline Foster in the high court.
Steel provided “unsuitable advice to customers to transfer out of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes including the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS)”, the FCA said.
The FCA added that he also showed “a lack of honesty and integrity in selling his client book for less than its value to himself”.
Between 2015 and 2018, more than 480 clients were given DB transfer advice by EMF with over £140m ($178m, €164m) of pension assets being transferred as a result.
In providing the advice, Steel failed to collect the right information and/or disclose the risks of transferring, the FCA said.
He will have to pay £850,000 to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which represents all of Steel’s remaining assets and ensures he will contribute to the cost of compensating customers. The FCA imposed a fine of over £3m on Steel. However, it agreed not to enforce this provided Steel paid £850,000 to the FSCS.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Steel failed to provide suitable pension transfer advice.
“But he also failed to act with honesty and integrity when he improperly sold the firm’s assets for less than their value – to himself – so that he could enjoy the profits of the business without the burden of the risks that he had created.”
This comes after the FCA banned Mark Abley of County Capital Wealth Management Ltd and Denis Lee Morgan of IFA firm Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Limited from advising any customers on pension transfers.
