Ms Seána Cunningham:

To impose administrative sanctions we would need to establish a regulatory breach by a firm. We would then have to demonstrate that a senior individual participated in that breach. Under the fitness and probity regime we would have to demonstrate that someone is currently not fit and proper to perform their role due to a lack of competence or probity. There is quite a lot of legal complexity underpinning it, but that is how it works at a high level.

Our proposals for enhancing individual accountability are informed by our experience of conducting enforcement investigations in previous cases. We are advocating breaking the participation link whereby we have to establish regulatory breach on the part of a firm and that a senior person committed the self-same breach. Experience tells us that this is not always the case. At times it is quite difficult to frame cases around that. We are using the powers we have. We have strong powers, and in these investigations we are looking at the actions of senior individuals.