The Financial Services Authority has publicly censured and banned the three directors of the Simply Trading Group, Stephen Coles, Luke Ryan and Michael Yamoah, from senior management positions for falling short of FSA standards.

Coles, Ryan and Yamoah shared responsibility for the management of STG, a small private client advisory stockbroker in London and Hampshire which specialised in telephone sales of securities traded on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, as well as higher risk securities traded on the AIM and PLUS markets through its two appointed representatives.

The FSA’s investigation found that Coles, Ryan and Yamoah were responsible for the following offences: they relied too heavily on an external compliance consultant for advice on how to run their business; they failed to ensure that STG met regulatory requirements, including capital resource requirements and implementing adequate systems and controls; and they failed to monitor adequately their two appointed representatives, creating a serious risk that customers received unsuitable investment advice. This included a failure to ensure that call monitoring equipment was in place at one of the appointed representatives.

The FSA would have imposed a fine of £17,000 (about $26,550) on each of the directors had they not provided verifiable evidence of serious financial hardship. It has therefore imposed a public censure to act as a deterrent.