The FCA trader bans revoked on October 16 belong to four people whose criminal convictions were overturned. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority announced the action in a statement concerning the long-running LIBOR and EURIBOR cases. This is a fresh regulatory consequence of earlier court decisions, not an announcement of four new convictions. Even a scandal with a very long shelf life needs its labels updated.
The regulator names Colin Bermingham, Philippe Moryoussef, Jonathan Mathew and Christian Bittar. It says the convictions formed the basis of its regulatory action, so it has revoked the bans and removed the associated Final Notices from its channels. The statement also says the FCA will take no further action against these individuals in relation to this matter.
The FCA places the announcement after last year’s decision to discontinue proceedings against Tom Hayes and revoke Carlo Palombo’s ban following the Supreme Court’s quashing of their convictions. Reuters reports that the latest Court of Appeal reversals occurred earlier this month. The dates matter: the October 16 development is the regulator’s response, rather than a claim that all the underlying appeals were decided that day.
Analysis: legal reporting has a responsibility to follow a case beyond the first dramatic allegation or conviction. A reversal changes the status that readers need to know. If an old headline continues to circulate without the later outcome, the public record becomes a greatest-hits compilation with all the corrections removed. That is efficient packaging and poor information.
A criminal conviction and a regulatory restriction are separate actions, even when one is based on the other. Here the FCA expressly explains the connection. Reporting that explanation is more precise than suggesting the restrictions simply expired or that the regulator announced a new general policy covering everyone who ever worked with a benchmark.
The scope should remain equally precise. The statement concerns four named people and this matter. It does not announce a blanket reversal of every past market-abuse finding, every financial penalty or every separate proceeding associated with the wider history. A development can be substantial without being expanded into a claim about an entire era.
The verified update is clear: these four bans have been revoked, the associated notices removed and no further FCA action is planned against those individuals in this matter. That outcome belongs alongside the earlier coverage. A justice system’s later decisions do not become optional reading merely because the original story had a better villain-shaped silhouette.
Sources and photograph
Financial Conduct Authority, October 16 statement. Reuters, October 16 report.
File photograph of London’s Royal Courts of Justice in 2019; not the FCA headquarters, a defendant or the October 2026 proceedings. Photo: David Castor (dcastor); CC0. Display copy resized. Original photograph and rights record. Image-use terms.
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