UK's FCA lifts bans on four former traders after benchmark-rigging convictions quashed
- FCA revokes lifetime bans on four former traders: Colin Bermingham, Philippe Moryoussef, Jonathan Mathew, and Christian Bittar.
- Court of Appeal overturned their benchmark-rigging convictions earlier this month, forcing the watchdog to scrub related final notices from public records.
- Bans lifted only after legal legwork; FCA stops short of admitting it was wrong, just quietly deletes the evidence.
Brief Summary
In a move that will surely warm the hearts of conspiracy theorists, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority has decided to un-ban four ex-traders who were once the poster children for financial depravity. The FCA said it lifted bans on Colin Bermingham, Philippe Moryoussef, Jonathan Mathew and Christian Bittar after their benchmark-rigging convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal. The regulator also wiped their final notices from its public records, essentially performing digital surgery to erase a decade of shame. Lovely. So after years of being globally vilified for fiddling the LIBOR and EURIBOR rates, an appeals court says 'never mind' and Uncle Sam's favorite red-tape brigade dutifully hits delete. This isn't just a footnote; it's a damning indictment of how quickly financial watchdogs abandon their trophies when the legal winds shift.
Why This Matters
For the average reader, this is less about defending traders and more about the stench of institutional whiplash. It raises uncomfortable questions about what those 'related final notices' actually contained, and whether the FCA's initial, aggressive enforcement was built on a house of cards. If a conviction can be quashed and bans lifted nearly a decade later, then how many other careers and reputations were sacrificed to look tough on banking? It's a cautionary tale about due process and the fact that 'guilty until proven innocent' is alive and well in financial regulation. Also, it's a reminder that your bank's rate-manipulation muscle memory isn't gone—just waiting for the next lawyer to cash in.