FCA whistleblower claims unfair dismissal after raising P2P concerns
A City regulator whistleblower has claimed that he was unfairly sacked after raising concerns, including problems with peer-to-peer lending platforms, to his managers.
Walker Sigismund worked at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a risk manager until being made redundant in 2018.
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According to Law360, his lawyer said to a tribunal that his client was fired after warning about the under-capitalisation of finance firms in the run-up to the global financial crisis and in April 2017 saying that P2P platforms were overcharging consumers.
Sigismund is reportedly relying on a total of 27 statements which he claimed he made to the watchdog that would come under protected disclosures under whistleblowing legislation.
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Jose Morago, a deputy chief risk officer at the FCA until 2020, was questioned on Sigismund’s claims the FCA did not want him to speak up about consumer protection breaches in relation to overcharging P2P platforms.
Meanwhile, Julia Hoggett, a director of market oversight at the FCA who reviewed Sigismund’s internal appeal against his dismissal, was asked about the former employee’s concerns of finance firms breaching capital requirements and the regulator ignoring this.
Morago reportedly said that he did not recall saying to let the alleged P2P problems go and Hoggett said she thought in the redundancy process, Sigismund had been treated reasonably and fairly.
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The FCA has declined to comment.