Banned for breaching agreement
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The Financial Services Authority has banned Swindon-based sole trader Joseph Masi, trading as Select Mortgage Services, for breaching a settlement agreement he made with the regulator and providing false and misleading information.
The ban follows an FSA investigation into systems and controls at Masi’s firm, and the suitability of the advice it provided customers.
Masi signed a settlement agreement which required him to obtain sign-off from an external compliance consultant for all mortgage sales for a period of six months from September 3 2007.
But during a visit to the company in March 2009 as part of the regulator’s assessment programme for small firms Masi provided records that stated only one regulated mortgage application had been completed in the six-month period and it had not followed the agreed external sign-off process.
After obtaining further infor-mation from lenders the FSA discovered 18 regulated mortgage applications which were submitted by Masi’s firm had in fact completed during the period and at least 48 had been submitted.There is no evidence any of these applications were approved by an external compliance consultant.
The FSA concluded that Masi acted without honesty and integrity, demonstrating he is not a fit and proper person. It therefore banned him from working in the financial services industry.
Margaret Cole, director of en-forcement and financial crime at the FSA, says: “Masi not only breached his agreement with the FSA but also deliberately provided false information in an attempt to cover up the breach.
“This raised a number of serious questions as to his integrity and the risk he poses to customers. The decision to ban Masi serves as a warning to individuals who try to mislead the FSA or fail to comply with our rules.”
Last week the regulator also cancelled the Part IV permissions of Nigel Alexander McClements, trading as Northumbria Mortgages in Carlisle, Cumbria.
The firm failed to pay fees and levies of £817.94.
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