The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned the former compliance officer of Keydata Investment Services, the firm that sold £475m of so-called death bonds to investors.
The watchdog said Peter Johnson has been prohibited from holding any regulated financial role and from doing any regulated activity in the UK, Reuters and The Telegraph reported.
The FCA, however, dropped Johnson’s £200,000 fine due to his “severe financial hardship.”
Johnson’s punishments were announced days after he dropped his appeal against the FCA’s decision in 2014 penalising him for his "reckless" behaviour.
"The FCA has found that Mr Johnson failed to act with integrity in his role as Keydata's Compliance Officer and misled the then Financial Services Authority on a number of occasions,” Reuters quoted the watchdog as saying.
In 2009, the FCA closed down Keydata after it sold £475m of death bonds to over 30,000 investors, The Telegraph reported.
The products, which were related to life insurance policies purchased by Americans with short life expectancies, failed to perform, according to the report.
Johnson, who was responsible for Keydata’s financial promotions, should have known that their information was unclear and misleading, the FCA said.
The regulator said Johnson “recklessly failed to take adequate steps to ensure that Keydata explained or mitigated the risk to investors.”
