The latest compliance issues in wealth management across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority has banned Angela Burns from acting as a non-executive director and fined her £20,000 ($25,143) for failing to act with integrity at two mutual societies.

Angela Burns is an experienced UK investment professional and the chief executive of her own investment consultancy. From January 2009 until May 2011, Burns was a NED at two mutual societies and served as the chair of their investment committees.

Burns took part in discussions about Vanguard Asset Management Limited, a US firm that had just opened offices in the UK, at both mutual societies. She was simultaneously soliciting work from Vanguard by referring to her NED positions at the mutual societies while she was providing them with what they thought was impartial advice. 

The FCA said that Burns did not, however, tell either mutual society that she was simultaneously seeking consultancy work with Vanguard. 

“Directors have a duty to disclose or avoid conflicts of interest so they can be addressed by the board. In this case, Ms Burns placed herself in a position where her duty as a non-executive director may have conflicted with concurrent opportunities she was pursuing. This was neither disclosed nor, as a consequence, could it be addressed by the board. This was inappropriate and inconsistent with the standards of integrity expected from senior managers”, Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight of the FCA, said.

The regulator also banned Burns from acting as a non-executive director.