Fresh tribunal setback for FSA

The rigour of the Financial Services Authority's disciplinary procedures has once again been thrown into doubt after the regulator lost yet another hearing at the Financial Services & Markets Tribunal.

Ravi Manchanda, a Singaporean businessman who had his application for FSA authorisation declined last year, won his appeal at the Tribunal after it ruled there was no evidence to show he was not "fit and proper" to work in the industry.

The decision was the FSA's fifth loss in the Tribunal - three of which have been in the past six months - out of about 30 cases.

Mr Manchanda said he hoped his case would highlight the injustice of the FSA's enforcement procedures. In spite of being issued with a decision notice claiming that he was not "fit and proper", Mr Manchanda was not called for interview by the regulator and says he was unable to stop his name getting into the public domain.

The FSA said it had declined Mr Manchanda's application because he was the finance director and chief operating officer at a company involved in a multimillion-dollar fraud in the 1990s. However, Mr Manchanda has never been linked to the fraud.