FCA accuses Arch directors of 'evasive' answers at Tribunal hearing

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Tuesday accused Arch Financial Products (AFP) chief executive Robin Farrell and former compliance officer Robert Addison of giving inconsistent and vague evidence in their appeal against a regulatory ban and fine handed to them in 2012.

In its closing statement at the pair's Upper Tribunal hearing in London, Monica Carss-Frisk QC, of Blackstone Chambers and representing the FCA, said Farrell and Addison had given "evasive answers" and sought to "avoid dealing with points in a straightforward way" when presenting their case. They had also presented new evidence during the hearing, Carss-Frisk added. Farrell and Addison are appealing a ban imposed on them by the FCA's predecessor regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), for what it considered "reckless" failings in managing conflicts of interest at AFP, which wa...