The BoE has fined Vocalink Limited £11.9m in respect of a compliance failure under s.196 of the Banking Act 2009. This marks the first time that the BoE has fined a financial market infrastructure (FMI) firm.
Vocalink has been regulated since April 2018 as a specified service provider, a type of FMI firm involved in UK payments systems operations
It had been directed by the BoE to remediate a number of systems and controls issues, after which it implemented a remediate programme and had until 28 February 2022 to comply with the BoE’s requirements. However, an ineffective risk management framework, weaknesses in its controls, governance arrangements and escalation processes resulted in Vocalink failing to comply in full with the direction’s requirements.