Context
In another example of a long-drawn out enforcement case, the FCA has published an Upper Tribunal ruling in the FCA’s favour on the refusal to allow Thomas Llewellyn Kalaris to perform senior manager functions. Although the FCA welcomes the Tribunal’s ruling (it has stated that the Tribunal “unanimously found” that Mr Kalaris was dishonest in two enforcement interviews the FCA conducted into events that occurred during his time at Barclays), the ruling also acknowledges that Mr Kalaris had complied with the restrictions imposed on him by the Authority in the period up to March 2020.
Key points to note and next actions
- This is the second FCA enforcement publication in two weeks in relation to Senior Manager fitness and propriety, the other being in relation to Martin Sarl and his actions which led to the insurance firm Perry Prowse (Insurance Consultants) Ltd going into liquidation in January 2020.
- The FCA’s original decision, published in November 2022 following a Senior Manager appointment application in September 2020. That application was turned down by the FCA, based on the FCA’s opinion that Mr Kalaris had been dishonest in two interviews with the FCA in 2013 and 2014, which were part of the Regulator’s investigations into Barclays’ controversial capital raising from Qatar in 2008 and other events from 2012.
- The basis of the FCA’s decision in 2020 was that Mr Kalaris was not a fit and proper person to perform the Senior Manager functions applied for at the time.
- The lengths of time involved in the two enforcement cases noted here perhaps indicate that the FCA has a long memory in cases where Senior Manager dishonesty is concerned, and that it can take a significant length of time to bring these cases to a conclusion.