Ian Hannam is by far the Financial Services Authority’s biggest scalp on disclosing inside information so far in the recent flurry of prosecutions.
Although his fine is only the second biggest, his profile in the City is far bigger than those of any of his four fellow members of the club.
David Einhorn, the poker-playing US hedge-fund tycoon, was fined in January a far bigger £3.6 million for trading on inside information about a Punch Taverns fundraising. His firm, Greenlight Capital, was also fined £3.7 million, including a repayment of the profit — or, to be more precise, the losses avoided — on his dealings.
Einhorn gave orders to sell shares in Punch after a Merrill Lynch banker, Andrew Osborne, disclosed inside information that Punch was going to raise money in the market by issuing shares — an event that would lead the Punch share price to fall sharply.
Osborne was fined £350,000 for market abuse. Greenlight’s compliance officer in London, Alexander Ten-Holter, was fined £130,000 for his role in the affair.
Separately, last month, Credit Suisse’s head of European credit sales, Nicholas Kyprios, was fined £210,000 for informing a client of a forthcoming bond issue by playing a guessing game where the client went through the alphabet until guessing the identity of the company in question.
