The UK’s Financial Services Authority has fined UBS £8 million for a series of breaches that occurred between January 1 2006 and December 31 2007 in its international wealth management business. By accepting the fine at an early stage, UBS has secured a whopping 20% discount.
The fine was imposed because “certain UBS employees on one desk in the international wealth management business had been involved in unauthorized foreign exchange and precious metals trading across 39 customer accounts. These trades were then concealed by the use of internal transfers between the accounts of affected customers; the use of an internal suspense account; and the creation of unauthorized purported loans between affected clients," the FSA said.