6 Record Search Lessons From $43M Clydesdale Bank Penalty

Clydesdale Bank PLC was recently hit with a more-than-$43 million fine, largely because it failed to search for documents that should have been subject to its destruction policy, and for misleading consumers and its regulators about the searches. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is something like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rolled into one, imposed this £20,678,300 fine on April 14, 2015, and issued a detailed notice explaining how it arrived at such a fine. The facts discussed here are as represented by the FCA in its order. 

As the recent Libor cases have shown, the U.S. and U.K. bank regulators are often found chasing the same fox. Accordingly, the FCA’s notice provides valuable lessons for all U.S. financial institutions, not only those who do business in the U.K.

Originally published in Law360; reprinted with permission.