The Financial Services Authority, which is having some key bank oversight powers stripped away by the current UK government, sought to remind the public that it has become increasingly tough in cracking down on wrongdoing, imposing almost £100 million (around $163 million) in fines during the 2010-11 financial year.

The watchdog’s Enforcement and Financial Crime Division imposed a record total of £98.5 million in fines, including the highest fine against a firm of £33.3 million against JP Morgan Securities for failing to protect client money by segregating it properly, the FSA said in its annual report yesterday.

The biggest-ever fine against an individual, meanwhile, was £2.8 million against Simon Eagle, a former stockbroker, for his part in a share ramping scheme.  

The FSA has been at pains to stress its moves against financial wrongdoing. The watchdog has itself come under fire for not, some critics say, doing enough to warn about risks building in the banking system ahead of the 2008 credit crunch. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, elected a year ago, argued that financial regulation itself needed wholesale reforms.

In June last year, UK finance minister George Osborne said the government intended to transfer the regulatory functions of the FSA to the Bank of England and certain proposed new regulatory bodies. The FSA will cease to exist in its current form.

Adair Turner, chairman of the FSA, was adamant that the FSA continues to be a key regulatory player.

“We will remain focused on our statutory objectives until the formal move to the new structure and have continued to make strong progress in delivering our priorities. It is also important to recognise that there is still a great deal of regulatory work to be completed at an international level. We will continue to be at the forefront of that process, which will build on much of the work we have delivered here in the UK since the financial crisis,” he said.

The FSA spelled out a range of actions against financial wrongdoers.

“We obtained five criminal convictions, secured in excess of £100 million redress for consumers and prohibited 71 individuals from the financial services industry,” the organisation said in its annual report statement.

“In 2010/11 guilty verdicts were returned in the prosecutions of five individuals for insider dealing, resulting in custodial sentences of between 12 months and three years and four months,” it continued.

The FSA said that acting against individuals is a greater deterrent to wrongdoing than against firms, adding: “We are committed to holding senior managers to account for competency and integrity failings.”

As well as a series of law enforcement cases, the FSA has also unveiled a new remuneration code for the financial sector. The code is designed to curb short-term risk-taking by making firms defer bonus payments, although UK government tax changes have, ironically, made bonus deferments less attractive on tax grounds than before. (For an opinion item about this issue, click here).