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Response from Achilles Macris to the Financial Conduct Authority Final Notice, published 9th February 2016:
“Today’s outcome represents a major climb-down by the FCA, after four years that I have spent fighting to clear my name. The Final Notice issued to JP Morgan by the FCA in 2013 wrongly and unfairly accused me of deliberately misleading the FSA. That Notice was released to the public without the FCA ever having properly heard my side of the story. Today the FCA has finally accepted that this allegation against me was utterly wrong.
Today's result also vindicates my actions in bringing my third party reference seeking to have this allegation removed from the JP Morgan Notice. The FCA demonstrated a total disregard for my rights as an individual in its haste to issue the JP Morgan Notice and impose a large fine on the firm.
Having already achieved two significant court victories, in which the FCA was found to have acted against the law in not giving me third party rights, I look forward to further vindication in the Supreme Court, where if I succeed, the FCA will have to expunge from the JP Morgan Notice the false and unfair statements made about me.
The FCA has had several opportunities to admit its mistakes, but instead, at every turn, it has until now sought to defend and justify its position, wasting public funds.
The fact is that after three and a half years of investigation, the FCA has finally concluded that in 2012, without any intention to mislead, I did not during the course of a single meeting and a single phone call disclose or ensure that others in my team disclosed certain information to the FSA which it considers that it should have been made aware of.
The FCA ignores the fact that I initiated the phone call in question to provide the FSA with access to the right JP Morgan staff to answer any of their questions. It also ignores my 30-year financial services industry track record of open and cooperative relationships with regulators.
While I maintain that my efforts in this regard were above and beyond any reasonable standard of transparency with regulators, now that the FCA has accepted that I did not deliberately mislead it, I have decided not to prolong what has been a drawn out and burdensome process and have settled with the FCA, on the basis that there is no prohibition on my working in the regulated sector.
I remain profoundly concerned about how the FCA, and in particular its Enforcement staff, has acted. It made completely unfounded public allegations and assertions, without giving me a fair hearing, which it has now had to withdraw, but which have significantly damaged my reputation and career.
The simple truth is that this has been a costly and ultimately failed investigation which has gone on for far too many years.”
