Lloyd Pope and Peter Legerton, former directors of advisory firm TailorMade Independent Ltd (TMI), have been banned from performing any significant influence function in the UK financial services industry by the FCA for breaches of Principle 7 of the FCA’s Statements of Principle for Approved Persons.

In addition, Mr Pope has been fined £93,800 and Mr Legerton would have been fined £84,000, but for financial hardship.

TMI advised customers to transfer their pension funds and invest in high risk unregulated investments through self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs).

The FCA found that the two directors

1. failed to understand the products that customers were investing in,
2. failed to ensure that TMI assessed the suitability of the underlying investments for its customers,
3. failed to ensure that TMI identified and managed its conflicts of interests and
4. failed to oversee TMI’s compliance function, which had been outsourced to external consultants, properly.

In addition, Mr Legerton benefited financially from commission payments from unregulated firms to which TMI introduced business.

The breaches were compounded since no action was taken when the external compliance consultants advised TMI to consider and disclose conflicts of interest to customers.

Copies of the

press release;

final notice for Lloyd Arnold Pope

final notice for Peter Charles Legerton