Central Bank opens consultation on sanctions for accountability regime

The Central Bank of Ireland has begun a 12-week consultation on changes to administrative sanctions and enforcement procedures for a new accountability regime for senior executives in the financial services industry here.

The move follows a three-month consultation on key elements of the individual accountability framework that will allow authorities to hold companies and individuals to account for their actions.

The Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Act 2023 was signed into law on March 9th.

The consultation is seeking views on the revised procedures following the introduction of changes under the IAF Act. It will also provide guidance on how the Central Bank proposes to operate the revised procedures. The enforcement action and penalties will remain largely the same under the new Act, but now apply to a wider range of people.

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The new procedures are expected to reduce the need for investigations, while also speeding up the process for those investigations that are needed.

“The Central Bank is committed to being open and engaged so that we can ensure the proposed enhanced ASP guidelines provide practical and clear guidance to firms and individuals on how the ASP will operate,” said Seána Cunningham, director of enforcement and anti-money laundering.

The changes were introduced in the wake of the State’s tracker-mortgage scandal, with the Central Bank seeking extra powers to sanction individuals for failings under their watch.

Previous sanctions handed down by authorities include a €3.6 million fine levied on the European life and pensions division of Axa for a number of regulatory breaches related to risk management and the group’s handling of conflicts of interest. That fine had been reduced by 30 per cent from €5.2 million after the firm made an early admission to the infringements under the terms of the Central Bank’s settlement discount scheme.

The consultation will close on September 14th.