Annual FCA penalties plummet from £885m to £181m

The regulator imposed 15 financial penalties this year, down from 34 in 2015/16. Of the 15, six were imposed against firms and nine against individuals (£0.9m).

In January 2017, the FCA fined Deutsche Bank AG over £163m for failures in its AML framework between 2012 and 2015.

In its annual report and accounts, the FCA said: "Figures for 2015/16 and 2014/15 include exceptional fines related to FX and LIBOR misconduct. We remain committed to investigating and holding firms and individuals accountable for misconduct and ensuring wrongdoers pay for the costs of remediation. There has been no change in our approach to misconduct or financial penalties."

The accounts also show that chief executive Andrew Bailey took home a salary of £330,000 plus a £65,000 bonus in his first year in the job.

Director of strategy and competition Christopher Woolard received a basic salary of £300,000 with a £50,000 bonus.

John Griffith-Jones, Chairman of the FCA, said: “The FCA is now four years old: it has come a long way in that time. This year has seen Andrew Bailey take over as Chief Executive. He has driven the development of our Mission, supported by our sector views and an extensive programme of work, as set out in our Business Plan.

“Measuring our regulatory effectiveness is not straightforward. While we set out our inputs and our outputs, the all-important outcome of harm prevented or improvements achieved through deterrence cannot be readily quantified on an annual basis. With longer-term hindsight, patterns and trends will be more obvious. In the meanwhile, surveys among stakeholders, including firms and consumers, provide current soft evidence and it is encouraging to see that confidence in the FCA as a regulator continues to improve.”