Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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63. To ask the Minister for Finance if there are penalties or fines for financial entities or persons operating here without Central Bank authorisation; the number of warnings issued by the Central Bank in each year since 2015 for companies operating without such authorisation; the value of fines imposed in the companies operating without authorisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34869/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that a monetary penalty can be imposed by a court on an unauthorised provider of financial services, if it is convicted of operating in the absence of authorisation.  Depending on the relevant Act/Statutory Instrument, the monetary penalty varies.

Unlike entities that are authorised by the Central Bank, unauthorised entities are not subject to the Central Bank’s Administrative Sanctions Procedure (‘ASP’) regime and associated sanctioning powers.

The Central Bank does not have the power to impose any fines on such entities, however, fines may be imposed on an entity operating in the absence of authorisation following criminal conviction by a Court. There were no criminal convictions in the years since 2015. 

The Central Bank publishes a list of unauthorised firms in respect of whom warning notices have been published at the following link:

https://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/how-we-regulate/authorisation/unauthorised-firms/search-unauthorised-firms. 

The number of unauthorised providers of financial services published on the Central Bank’s list of unauthorised firms for each year since 2015 is provided below:

2015:  11

2016:  19

2017:  20

2018:  30

2019:  31 (as at end August 2019).