The number of financial services staff sacked or suspended in the UK in 2012 for reasons such as wrongdoing reached the highest level in five years, according to law firm Pinsent Masons.

Citing figures obtained by using a Freedom of Information request, Pinsent Masons said 1,373 individuals were dismissed or suspended from financial services jobs (as distinct from those who lost their jobs through general redundancy) - a jump of 56 per cent on the previous 12 months.

(To view a summary of miscreants in financial services, click here.)

There have been a number of financial scandals and punishments for banks and other financial institutions in the past year, such as heavy fines on Barclays and UBS for manipulation of LIBOR interbank interest rates, and punishments on firms in the US for breaches of anti-money laundering controls.

One factor in play is that the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator that is set to be replaced under reforms in 2013, has stepped up its efforts against market abuse, pressing cases against insider dealing, for example.

Helen Farr, a London-based Partner in the Financial Services team at Pinsent Masons, said of the figures: "The FSA has increasingly shown that it is cracking down on financial crime and market abuse. Financial services firms are operating under increased scrutiny and as a result employers are imposing industry rules more strictly."

“FSA enforcement activity has clearly had an impact on firms' willingness to tolerate wrongdoing. Firms now appear much more likely to discipline employees for offences. The rise in number of staff dismissed from 778 to 1373 in a twelve-month period  suggests that the threat of enforcement and reputational damage associated with rogue traders such as Kweku Adoboli [former UBS trader] are clearly having an impact."

Pinsent Masons said the 1,373 total was based on changes to the employment status of individuals who have to be authorised by the FSA, and included people disciplined for poor performance or sacked for other reasons, as well as for wrongdoing. It also said the overall number of job losses in the financial sector had reached its highest level since 2008, with 36,868 people losing their jobs last year.

That took the total number of people who had left their posts over the past five years to 177,697, it added.