UBS executive takes FSA to court over £100k fine

A senior executive at UBS has challenged a fine from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in a tribunal today.

John Pottage, former head of UBS Wealth Management UK, is refuting the FSA's £100,000 fine for his alleged failure in 2006 to put checks on the business in place, the Financial Times reports.

This is the first case in which the FSA has attempted to fine a manager for failing to supervise his or her team, rather than for their own wrongdoing, and the first tribunal in which this challenge has been heard.

The case relates to UBS' £8m FSA fine in 2009 for poor systems and controls which did not stop unauthorised trading within the wealth management business.

Pottage was responsible for the wealth management firm at the time of the wrongdoing, over which four employees were sacked.

Pottage's barrister, Guy Philipps QC, said in a statement: "A number of control failures occurred in the back office of the business.

"Pottage is not said to have been in any way responsible for those control failures and he took prompt and effective steps, as his regulatory obligations required him to do, to ensure that each of them was properly investigated and rectified."

UBS has backed Pottage. It said: "The FSA is asserting a standard of conduct that bears no resemblance to what any large financial institution or CEO would reasonably have done at the time to deal with those issues.

"This is not the right forum for establishing new standards of conduct."