Arch cru's poisoned chalice: The failings that led to Danner's FSA ban

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today banned the co-founder of Cru Investment Management Stephen Danner from working in regulated financial services. As the poisoned chalice of Arch Cru continues to take victims, IFAonline looks at where he went so wrong.

As well as being the co-founder of Cru, Danner was also director of SD Asset Management (SDAM), an IFA firm. Danner's straddling of these two roles - and how he managed the interplay between them - are what have landed him in career-ending trouble. According to the regulator's final notice, Danner breached a number of FSA principles, failings that should act as a warning to all IFAs. Failing 1 He failed to ensure that SDAM had adequate arrangements to check before appointment that its appointed representatives (ARs) - including Cru - were solvent, otherwise fit and proper, and suita...