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  • EN-2 EN-2 Formal warnings

    • EN-2.1 EN-2.1 BMA policy

      • EN-2.1.1

        Formal Warnings are clearly identified as such and represent the Agency's first level formal enforcement measure. They are intended to clearly set out the Agency's concerns to a licensee or an individual regarding an issue, and should be viewed by the recipient with the appropriate degree of seriousness.

      • EN-2.1.2

        As indicated in section EN-1.1, the Agency will usually discuss concerns prior to resorting to a formal enforcement measure, especially where a significant element of judgment is required in assessing compliance with a regulatory requirement.

      • EN-2.1.3

        Where such discussions fail to resolve matters to the Agency's satisfaction, then it may issue a Formal Warning. Failure to respond adequately to a Formal Warning will lead the Agency to consider more severe enforcement measures. However, more severe measures do not require the prior issuance of a Formal Warning — depending on its assessment of the circumstances, the Agency may decide to have immediate recourse to other measures. Similarly, there may be circumstances where the Agency issues a Formal Warning without prior discussion with the licensee or person concerned: this would usually be the case where a clear-cut compliance failing has occurred.

      • EN-2.1.4

        When considering whether to issue a Formal Warning, the criteria taken into consideration by the Agency therefore include the following:

        (a) the seriousness of the actual or potential contravention, in relation to the requirement(s) concerned and the risks posed to the licensee's customers, market participants and other stakeholders;
        (b) in the case of an actual contravention, its duration and/or frequency of the contravention; the extent to which it reflects more widespread weaknesses in controls and/or management; and the extent to which it was attributable to deliberate or reckless behaviour; and
        (c) the extent to which the Agency's supervisory objectives would be better served by issuance of a Formal Notice as opposed to another type of regulatory action.

    • EN-2.2 EN-2.2 Procedure for issuing Formal Warnings

      • EN-2.2.1

        Proposals to issue Formal Warnings are carefully considered against the criteria listed in section EN-2.1. They require the approval of a Director or more senior BMA official, and include the statement "This is a Formal Warning as defined in Chapter EN-2 of the BMA Rulebook".

      • EN-2.2.2

        Depending on the issue in question, recipients of a Formal Warning may be required to respond to the contents of the Warning. (In other cases, recipients may also respond should they wish to.) Given its nature, there is no provision for recipients to challenge the issuance of a Warning.