City bigwig Michael Spencer blasts ‘politically motivated’ regulators
City grandee Michael Spencer has launched a scathing attack on “politically motivated” regulators after his firm successfully challenged a €15m (£13.5m) fine over the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
The former Tory party treasurer urged banks to stand up to regulators after his brokerage firm Icap won its court battle against the European Commission earlier this month.
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“I believe this issue needs to be addressed urgently – most importantly there should be a much greater separation between the regulators’ supervisory functions and their enforcement operations,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Otherwise they tend to end up marking their own homework and making fundamental, politically motivated errors.”
Icap and a string of top banks were hit with fines in 2015 after regulators accused the firm of assisting companies participating in a cartel in the yen interest rate derivatives sector.
But unlike RBS, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup, which all admitted their involvement in the scandal in exchange for lower fines, the interdeal broker opted to fight the penalty.
Icap, which was renamed TP Icap following its merger with Tullett Prebon in 2016, won the final part of its legal challenge two weeks ago.
“The banks simply paid up. This ruling shows the financial sector needs to be more robust in its dealings with the regulators, who too often are not only judge, jury and executioner in these matters but the licensing authority as well,” Spencer said.
Spencer, who has given more than £4m to the Conservative party, donated £20,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign through his personal investment company IPGL.
“I think he is going to be a breath of fresh air for the business sector generally and I am sure that will extend to banking and finance as well,” he said.
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The serial investor has previously voiced his concerns over policies floated by shadow chancellor John McDonnell to help tackle climate change.
Spencer said plans to delist companies with poor green credentials from the London Stock Exchange amounted to “financial totalitarianism”.
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