What is the role of enforcement?
Through regulation, the Bank sets out rules, and develops standards and policies that set out what we require and expect of PRA-authorised firms, financial market infrastructures (‘FMIs’) and those involved in their management. Through supervision, the Bank monitors and assesses whether PRA -authorised firms and FMIs are meeting our requirements and expectations. See the Bank’s approach to supervision of FMIs.
Where firms are not meeting our requirements and expectations, the Bank can take action – supervisory or enforcement – to reduce the risks that might arise. This can be by way of imposing a financial penalty or public censure. The Bank can also prohibit an individual from working in the regulated financial services sector.
The Bank’s approach to enforcement supports and supplements our regulatory and supervisory tools by ensuring that we have credible mechanisms for holding our regulated community to account where they do not meet our requirements and expectations and providing a wider deterrent effect. We are committed to holding individuals to account and, where appropriate, taking regulatory and/or enforcement action against those individuals who breach our standards.
This way we clearly set out, for the benefit of the whole regulated community, the actions and standards of behaviour we consider unacceptable.