Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority fines Bank of London Group and Oplyse Holdings GBP 2 million for misleading capital position

The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has imposed a GBP 2 million fine on The Bank of London Group Limited and its parent financial holding company Oplyse Holdings Limited for misleading the PRA about their capital positions and for wider failures including lack of integrity, insufficient openness and cooperation with the regulator, and inadequate financial resources. The misconduct occurred between October 2021 and May 2024, marking the PRA’s first fine for failing to conduct business with integrity and its first enforcement action against a parent financial holding company. The PRA found prolonged non-compliance with regulatory capital requirements and repeated misstatements of capital, including the provision of fabricated documents intended to present a false capital position. Further findings included failures to be open and transparent about a deteriorating solvency position and imprudent conduct involving a large exposure arising from a loan from the bank to its parent that was not appropriately managed or reported. The parties agreed to settle; while the PRA assessed the breaches as warranting a GBP 12 million penalty, it reduced the fine to GBP 2 million after the firms demonstrated that paying the higher amount would cause serious financial hardship. The breaches covered multiple PRA Rulebook provisions, including Fundamental Rules on integrity, prudence, adequate resources and cooperation with regulators, alongside rules on reporting own funds, large exposures, notifications, related-party transaction risk and the definition of capital, with an additional consolidated own-funds reporting breach for Oplyse Holdings Limited.