Tribunal upholds FCA ruing against former Metro Bank CEO and CFO

The Upper Tribunal has upheld the FCA's decision that Craig Donaldson and David Arden, former CEO and chief financial officer of Metro Bank, were knowingly concerned in a breach of the listing rules.

In December 2022, the FCA fined Metro Bank PLC £10,002,300 for breaching the listing rules by publishing incorrect information to investors.

As a company listed on the stock exchange, Metro regularly reported on its prudential position, including the risk weighted assets (RWA) on which its regulatory capital requirements are based.

The FCA claimed that in 2018, Metro's quarterly financial results published an unqualified statement of the its RWA, and the capital ratios based on it. 

The investigation found that Metro knew at the time of a material error with the data, but did not inform the market. When amended numbers were published in January 2019, there was a 39% drop in Metro’s share price.

The FCA said that Donaldson and Arden "were aware of the material error and involved in the decision to publish the incorrect information", and the Tribunal has now upheld the FCA's ruling.

Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Investors make decisions based on information shared by listed companies. They must be able to trust it’s accurate. Mr Arden and Mr Donaldson allowed information they knew to be wrong to be published.”