FSA Fines Credit Suisse £5.6 Million
UK arm of Swiss giant hit over ABS pricing.
In February, Credit Suisse said that it would have to re-value a number of asset-backed securities that had been mis-priced by its staff. The result was a $2.65 billion write down of revenues.
The FSA said the firm had failed to adequately supervise the structured credit group and "did not act in a timely way on the concerns they had identified about the pricing of certain asset-backed positions." The regulator also cited inadequate systems and controls that permitted the incorrect valuations to remain undetected for a period of five months.
In a prepared statement, Margaret Cole, director of enforcement for the FSA, said:
" . . .The subsidiaries here failed to take appropriate steps to control the potentially high risk combination in the Structured Credit Group's holdings of exotic products, opaque valuations and high leverage. The sudden and unexpected announcement of the write down had the potential to undermine market confidence."