Investment banking giant JP Morgan was fined a record £33.3 million today over its failure to ring-fence billions of pounds of client money.
The fine — the largest ever imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - was imposed after JP Morgan failed to segregate client cash from its own money during a period that spanned nearly seven years.
The FSA said if JP Morgan had become insolvent during this time, substantial amounts of client money would have been at risk of loss.
Its fine represented just 1 per cent of the average amount of money unsegregated, according to the FSA.
PA