FCA Fines BancTrust Chief Executive £99,600 Over Disclosure Failures

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has decided to fine Carlos Ricardo Fuenmayor, Chief Executive of BancTrust, £99,600 for failing to disclose three separate matters that bear directly on his fitness and propriety.

The provisional findings are notable for what they reveal about the gaps a determined non-disclosure can open in a regulator's view of an approved person. Until December 2021, Mr Fuenmayor did not tell the FCA — including in application forms submitted on behalf of BancTrust — that he had been placed under investigation by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in December 2017 and subsequently sanctioned by it in June 2019. Separately, he failed to disclose that, shortly before a November 2019 inspection, the National Financial Intelligence Unit of Venezuela had frozen his local-currency accounts along with those of his Venezuelan companies and their directors.

The compliance significance here is straightforward but instructive. Each undisclosed item — an overseas regulatory sanction and an asset freeze by a foreign financial intelligence unit — is precisely the sort of adverse information that should trigger candour under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. The FCA concluded the failures were negligent and that Mr Fuenmayor breached APER Statement of Principle 4 and Senior Manager Conduct Rule 4, both of which require timely disclosure of anything the regulator would reasonably expect to receive. The practical effect, as the FCA notes, was that it was denied the opportunity to assess his fitness and propriety or to seek further information at the relevant time.

Therese Chambers, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said prompt disclosure of expected information underpins trust in financial services and supports a market that serves consumers well.

Mr Fuenmayor has referred his Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal, where he and the FCA will each present their cases. The findings therefore remain provisional and reflect the FCA's belief as to what occurred pending the Tribunal's determination.

For those holding senior management functions, the case is a reminder that the disclosure obligation is continuous and self-executing: the burden sits with the individual to surface adverse developments, and reliance on a regulator discovering them independently is not a defence.

Read the press release here.