UK regulator fines former CEO of 'death bonds' firm US$116m

[LONDON] Britain's financial regulator has fined Stewart Ford, former chief executive of Keydata Investment Services, a firm which sold so-called "death bonds", 75 million pounds (S$156.3 million), the biggest penalty ever handed out to an individual.

The Financial Conduct Authority also fined Mark Owen, former sales director at Keydata, 4 million pounds and Peter Johnson, its former compliance officer, 200,000 pounds.

Death bonds, or traded life insurance policies, are considered by the regulator to be high-risk investments depending in part on the death of the original insurance holders, who are often wealthy former professionals.

Thirty thousand people, mainly pensioners, ploughed more than 450 million pounds into Keydata Investment Services, which offered death bonds in Britain and was shut down by the regulator in 2009, after many lost much of their life savings.

REUTERS