Regulators have fined companies and top bosses about £1bn for fraudulent activities since 2007, a report due out today has found.
The study by Ernst & Young (E&Y) said financial services companies accounted for about 70% of the fines, with a total of more than £560m worth of penalties, according to the FT.
The paper said the research, collated from about 700 cases, showed fraud was most common in the mortgage industry and specialised finance sector.
“It is worrying to see that the regulators have needed to step in so frequently and issue punishments of this severity,” said John Smart, a partner at E&Y.
“While the results vary across different industries, firms should be mindful that these are not isolated situations, and fraudulent actions can occur across all industries and all sizes of business.”
The report said about half of the total number of fines issued by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) were between £10,000 and £100,000. But a smaller number of big cases brought the total for UK companies to £976m since '07.
The average fine for financial services firms was £2m. This was low compared to some other sectors, such as food, beverage and tobacco which had an average fine of £56m.
