INTRODUCTION The Enforcement Division (Division)

Transcript:INTRODUCTION The Enforcement Division (Division):
INTRODUCTION The Enforcement Division (Division) was created on 1 April 2018 when the FSCA came into existence. It is a combination of the previous Inspectorate and Director of Market Abuse Departments. The Division consists of 3 departments: the Enforcement Department, the Market Abuse Department, and Specialist Litigation Support Department. The Division is focused on contributing to the FSCA’s Regulatory Strategy (Dec 2021 to March 2025) and the strategic objective “to act against misconduct to support confidence and integrity in the financial sector”. The Regulatory Strategy emphasizes the need to act decisively and visibly against misconduct, and to take visible, meaningful action. An overriding consideration is good outcomes for customers. In short, we pursue credible deterrence through visible enforcement THE INVESTIGATION PROCESS The FSCA’s enforcement process is designed to be fair and consistent, and for administrative sanctions to be meaningful, but appropriate. All administrative sanctions imposed by the FSCA are subject to PAJA – but not all FSCA actions are administrative actions. The enforcement process commences with the receipt of a complaint, tip-off, or information from the public, the industry, the other FSCA Divisions, foreign and domestic regulators, or other agencies. This is routed to the Division’s Assessments team where a desktop investigation is completed, and the information is considered for issues like jurisdiction, merits, and our enforcement case selection policy. Given that we receive many more complaints that we have capacity to investigate, we have a case selection policy to assist us in deciding on cases to be (fully) investigated. Factors that are taken into account includes the quantum of losses, the extent of the case, impact for a larger group of clients, the media profile of the case and the age of the case or the information. THE INVESTIGATION PROCESS Before a full investigation is undertaken, the FSCA must have a reasonable suspicion that a financial sector law has been contravened. Only then is the FSCA permitted to utilise its investigation powers under sections 136 to 139 of the FSR Act (interviews under oath, notice to produce documents, search and seizure powers etc). Our investigation powers are limited to possible contraventions of financial sector laws. Search and seizure warrants must be applied for (ex parte), to a judge or magistrate in the jurisdictional area of the intended search. Search and seizure operations has moved away from collecting boxes of paper evidence to mirror- imaging of servers, personal computers and