The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined a director of an insolvent firm that provided advice to customers seeking to transfer their pension to unregulated investments.
Lloyd Pope has been given a financial penalty of £23,400 ($28,003, €25,827) and prohibited from holding any senior management roles at a regulated business, effective from 20 March 2015.
He was a director of collapsed advice firm TailorMade Independent (TMI).
The FCA partly blamed Pope for regulatory failures, which allowed 1,661 client transfer over £112m from pension funds into unsuitable self-invested personal pensions (Sipp).
The transfers took place between 2010 and 2013 and saw clients invest in green oil, biofuel oil, farmland and overseas property.
TMI entered liquidation in October 2013 and defaulted with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in July 2014.
The lifeboat scheme is currently assessing claims against the adviser and has already upheld 1,245.
Failings
The FCA said in a final notice on 16 March 2020: “Mr Pope failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the business of TMI, for which he was responsible in his controlled functions, complied with the relevant requirements and standards of the regulatory system.
“Mr Pope failed to understand fully the underlying products which TMI’s customers were investing in via their Sipp.
“Mr Pope confirmed that TMI had not performed a risk assessment of the underlying products and therefore TMI would not have been able to conclude whether the products were suitable for TMI’s customers.”
Settlement
Pope was originally fined £93,800 and banned for his failings in March 2015, but the penalty was later withdrawn by the FCA, as a result of issues relating to the limitation period allowed in the case against a fellow director at TMI.
Therefore, the FCA has issued a revised penalty to Pope of £23,400, which includes a 30% reduction due to his willingness to agree an early settlement in the case.
