An appeal tribunal has supported the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) decision to ban and fine a former non-executive director of MGM Advantage and Teachers Assurance.
Angela Burns was a non-exec for MGM, chairing its investment committee, and a non-exec for Teachers sitting on the risk audit and compliance committees and later chairing its investment committee.
In her role as a consultant she has previously worked for US asset manager Vanguard Asset Management in 2006 on its plan to enter the UK market.
She continued to have contact with Vanguard after taking up appointments at the two mutual insurers and in November 2010 sent an email suggesting payment from Vanguard in return for helping them to win business in the UK. The email mentioned a £350m mandate that Vanguard had won from MGM and that Vanguard was in the process of bidding for a £750m mandate from Teachers.
The FCA found that Burns had demonstrated a lack of integrity in not disclosing a potential conflict of interest and for breaching her fiduciary position of trust at MGM and Teachers. She was banned from holding any regulated positions and fined £154,800.
The tribunal upheld the main aspects of the FSA's decision. In his summing up, Andrew Bartlett QC note that the November email showed "a reckless disregard for the potential creation of conflicts of interest at a time when she knew that Vanguard was a live candidate for the Teachers mandate. This was not a steady adherence to ethical standards. To put it another way, her ethical compass was defective."
Bartlett also concluded that Burns "was not a reliably trustworthy witness on critical matters."
The parties were invited to agree on appropriate sanctions in light of the tribunal's findings.