FCA bans Secure My Money directors from working in financial services

The UK's financial watchdog has fined and banned four former directors of Secure My Money after finding they had taken more than £7.2m from around 124,000 online customers by duping them into believing they had been approved for short-term loans.

David James Carter Mullins, Edward John Booth, Christopher Paul Brotherton and Mark Robert Kennedy of Secure My Money, which has since been dissolved, were banned after the City watchdog found that between November 2013 and July 2014 all four had deliberately misled often vulnerable customers in relation to fees and services.

Customers searching for loans online were informed that they had been 'approved' and were shown details of a sample loan before being asked to enter their payment card details in order to "verify their account".

Customers were not pre-approved for a loan and there was no such account verification, instead, their cards were charged between £39 and £69 - a fee many of Secure My Money's customers, including those least able to afford the fees, were unaware would be charged.

Secure My Money's membership areas claimed to provide a list of pre-approved loan offers. In reality, the group had no contact or arrangements with any lenders.

When the FCA took over regulation of consumer credit firms in April 2014, SMM disabled the homepages, informing the industry body that it had taken them down for new customers. However, all four individuals knew however that the majority of customers arrived on the sites via other pages which were still live.

From late May 2014, SMM started charging customers a further monthly fee of £4.99 for continued access to membership areas and, to increase revenue, Kennedy subsequently arranged for the £4.99 charge to be backdated to March 2014, even though he was aware that doing so was outside customer terms and conditions.

Mark Steward, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said, "These four individuals consistently misled vulnerable customers into paying money for worthless services and into believing SMM had found them a loan, in addition to selling on their data. They showed complete disregard for the consequences of their actions."

"We have taken the strongest action possible to prevent them from working in financial services again," added Steward.

The bans imposed by the FCA are the strongest sanction available as the conduct took place before the watchdog had the power to fine individuals at consumer credit firms.

Approximately £1.4m was repaid by SMM as a result of customers requesting chargebacks from card providers or the firm itself and a further £33,564.17 was paid out after the firm's liquidation in July 2014.