FCA decision not to investigate/ take enforcement in relation to ISDAfix manipulation by ICAP

The request is waiting for clarification. If you are Joel M Benjamin, please sign in to send a follow up message.

Dear The Financial Conduct Authority,

I am interested in information, (meeting minutes, emails and case notes) in relation to the FCA’s decision not to pursue investigations into the alleged manipulation of the ISDAfix interest rate swaps benchmark run, out of New Jersey USA by UK domiciled & regulated broker ICAP (now NEX).

Please provide relevant information in relation to the FCA’s decision not to pursue or continue inquiries and regulatory enforcement action into potential manipulation of both USD and GBP ISDAfix between 2011 and 2018 with:

- US CFTC
- UK PRA
- HM Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Bank of England
- Office of the Prime Minister 10 Downing Street
- UK Serious Fraud Office
- US Federal Reserve
- US DOJ

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Joel M Benjamin

The Financial Conduct Authority

Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information Access Team. This is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you we have received your email safely. Please do not reply to this email. We will be in touch in due course.

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment Systems Regulator Limited)

Freedom of Information, The Financial Conduct Authority

1 Attachment

Our Ref: FOI6023

 

Dear Mr Benjamin

 

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

 

We refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the
Act).  A full copy is attached in Annex A. 

 

Your request has been considered.  We have determined that to respond your
request in full would exceed the FCA’s statutory cost limit for complying
with a request made under the Act, as set out in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004, and Section 12 (Cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit) of the
Act applies.  For more information as to why this exemption applies,
please refer to Annex B below.

 

When we refuse a request because the appropriate limit has been exceeded,
it is our general policy to provide advice and assistance to the applicant
to indicate how the request could be refined or limited to come within the
cost limit.  In this case, as an alternative, we may be able to consider
within the cost limit a request for the recorded information relating to
the decision taken by the FCA to close the review. 

 

In determining that the cost limit applies to this request, and in
providing advice and assistance we have not considered whether any other
exemptions apply.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Disclosure Team / Cyber and Information Resilience Department
/ Operations

[1]cid:image001.png@01D41789.4559F9F0

12 Endeavour Square

Stratford

London

E20 1JN

[2]www.fca.org.uk

 

Your right to complain under the FoI Act

 

If you are unhappy with the decision made in relation to your request, you
have the right to request an internal review.  If you wish to exercise
this right you should contact us within three months of the date of this
response.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. Telephone: 01625 545 700. Website: [3]www.ico.org.uk

 

Annex A

 

I am interested in information, (meeting minutes, emails and case notes)
in relation to the FCA’s decision not to pursue investigations into the
alleged manipulation of the ISDAfix interest rate swaps benchmark run, out
of New Jersey USA by UK domiciled & regulated broker ICAP (now NEX).

 

Please provide relevant information in relation to the FCA’s decision not
to pursue or continue inquiries and regulatory enforcement action into
potential manipulation of both USD and GBP ISDAfix between 2011 and 2018
with:

 

-        US CFTC

-        UK PRA

-        HM Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer

-        Bank of England

-        Office of the Prime Minister 10 Downing Street

-        UK Serious Fraud Office

-        US Federal Reserve

-        US DOJ

 

Annex B

 

·              Section 12 (Costs of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We are not required to comply with a request under the Act if it would be
too expensive to do so, as estimated in accordance with the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004 (the “Regulations”) made by the Ministry of Justice.  The Regulations
provide that, for the FCA, the cost limit is £450, i.e. 18 hours at the
rate of £25 per person per hour.  The Regulations allow us to take into
account, when estimating the cost of complying with a request, time spent
determining whether we hold the information requested, locating and
retrieving it and extracting the information from the relevant
document(s).

 

To identify the information you are seeking, would require all records
related to ISDAfIx and the firm to be manually accessed and reviewed to
determine if we held information falling within scope of your request. 
This exercise, we believe, would take well in excess of 18 hours.  On that
basis, we estimate that the cost of retrieving the information you have
requested would far exceed the £450 limit.

 

As our policy is not to divert our resources from our regulatory functions
in order to meet requests under the Act in excess of the cost limit, we
will not carry out an exercise to identify the information you have
requested.

 

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email
communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional
standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
2. http://www.fca.org.uk/
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Dear The Financial Conduct Authority,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of The Financial Conduct Authority's handling of my FOI request 'FCA decision not to investigate/ take enforcement in relation to ISDAfix manipulation by ICAP'.

Firstly with regard to assessing the FOI request, The FCA has neither confirmed nor denied that information/ correspondence with the named regulatory bodies is held in each case, please do so.

Additionally, the FCA claim that to examine (primarily digital) records regarding information (correspondence) with the following 8 bodies would exceed £450, or 2 hours+ search time per agency.

- US CFTC
- UK PRA
- HM Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Bank of England
- Office of the Prime Minister 10 Downing Street
- UK Serious Fraud Office
- US Federal Reserve
- US DOJ

This is questionable, as digital searches within key word parameters are fast, and can generate databases of document titles that can be filtered by the requester to narrow down items of interest to save time and money.

In the interests of saving staff time, I am prepared to drop the US DOJ, and UK PRA from the search fields, leaving just 6 agencies of interest, therefore proving 3 hours search time per agency.

I am also happy to narrow the search period to between June 2012 to 30 September 2018.

Handling this request

Applying Exemptions
Please note that exemptions should be applied to information rather than documents as a whole. This means that the most appropriate response to applying an exemption is redaction of sensitive information rather than refusing the request as a whole.

Please consider each element of this request individually, and apply exemptions in a granular manner. I would expect that in the first instance the Authority would be able to disclose non-contentious material, and we can proceed to argue the case for disclosure of a limited amount of withheld material.

Section 11 - Means by which communication is to be made
Section 11 allows for me to express a preference for the format of the request and requires that the authority comply so long as it is reasonably practicable. The format is not limited only to the options outlined in Section 11 (a), (b) and (c), broadly described as a permanent copy, inspection of the record or a summary or digest of the information.

I would prefer to receive the information in its natural format, as it is held by the Authority. I am specifically noting that I would not be happy to receive scanned photocopies and would prefer electronic formats that are capable of being text-searched.

Section 12 - Cost of compliance
Please note that according to the The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 only the costs of determining whether the information is held, locating it, retrieving it and extracting it should be included within the calculation of costs. *The time taken on applying exemptions and redaction should not be included.*

Section 16 - Advice and Guidance
If there is any part of this request that is unclear, please can you contact me to offer advice and guidance as to the form and format of the kinds of information held by the authority, so I am given an opportunity to explain what information I am seeking with reference to what is held. I would also note that the Section 45 Code of Practice says that in providing advice and assistance, I should be allowed to speak to your FOI officer rather than conducting all correspondence over email.

Section 17 - Reasons for refusing a request
If the public authority feels the need to withhold any information please can it clearly outline which exemption is being applied, and the points considered when balancing the prejudice and public interest tests.

I would expect the authority to be to demonstrate why an exemption applies ‘if it would not otherwise be apparent’ as per Section 17(1)(c), and considering that I have clearly why the exemptions should not be applied, that pro-forma responses would not be appropriate.

Please bear in mind the decision Hogan and Oxford City Council v Information Commissioner [2011] which notes that to demonstrate prejudice there must be an evidence based link between disclosure and 'real', 'substantial' and 'likely' harm.

Section 22 - Information Intended for future publication
Information can only be withheld under this exemption if it meets all of the conditions outlined in Section 22(1), and you will be unable to meet part (c), which requires it to be ’reasonable’ to withhold the information until a later date.

Section 35 - Development of government policy To be quite clear, this exemption is only available to central government departments. It is not possible to apply this exemption and you should turn to Section 36.

Section 36 - Prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs
Please note that in order to apply this exemption you will need to obtain a signed letter from a sufficiently senior member of staff, which I would expect to be the Chief Executive or Chairman of the Board, which states that disclosure of the information would, on balance, be to the detrimental to the public interest.

Please can you specify the exact sub-section of the exemption the authority wishes to apply i.e. Whether concerns are around full and frank provision of advice, or are more generally around the ‘effective conduct of public affairs’.

With regards to the ‘chilling effect’ argument, which forms the core of the case against disclosure, please consider Evans v Information Commissioner and Ministry of Defence 2007 (UKIT EA_2006_0064) where the Tribunal was left unconvinced that disclosure of the information would have any effect on the full and frank provision of advice.

Similarly, bear in mind the University College London’s Constitution Unit’s research on FOI, published in October 2010 in Governance, describing the ‘chilling effect’ as ‘one of the most powerful myths about FOI’. The Information Tribunal, Information Commissioner's Office and the Justice Select Committee have all found this research persuasive.

Please also consider that this exemption is balanced against the public interest, and I would imagine it will be difficult to muster a case to suggest that the public be disbarred from knowing anything about the plans until the date on which they come into force.

GDPR & DPA 2018

Art 9(2)(g) GDPR

Art 9(2)(g) states:

processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;

Section 10 of the DPA 2018

Sets out a 10(1)(b) - point (g) (substantial public interest) -(g) relates to

Art 9(2)(g) (Recital 51) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;

It is clearly of substantial public Interest to know the reasons for the FCA's decision not to pursue an inquiry into ICAP/NEX over ISDAfix manipulation given the company settled with the US CFTC for $50m in September 2018, and has been regularly in the news since 2012 https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/com...

The public interest should be assessed by reference to the circumstances at or around the time when the request is considered by the public authority (including the time of any internal review)

FOIA Section 2(2)(b) requires the authority to consider whether “in all the circumstances of the case”, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Article 86, recital 154

Article 86 - Personal data in official documents held by a public authority or a public body or a private body for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest may be disclosed by the authority or body in accordance with Union or Member State law to which the public authority or body is subject in order to reconcile public access to official documents with the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation.

Recital 154 - This Regulation allows the principle of public access to official documents to be taken into account when applying this Regulation. Public access to official documents may be considered to be in the public interest. Personal data in documents held by a public authority or a public body should be able to be publicly disclosed by that authority or body if the disclosure is provided for by Union or Member State law to which the public authority or public body is subject. Such laws should reconcile public access to official documents and the reuse of public sector information with the right to the protection of personal data and may therefore provide for the necessary reconciliation with the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation. The reference to public authorities and bodies should in that context include all authorities or other bodies covered by Member State law on public access to documents. Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council¹ leaves intact and in no way affects the level of protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data under the provisions of Union and Member State law, and in particular does not alter the obligations and rights set out in this Regulation. In particular, that Directive should not apply to documents to which access is excluded or restricted by virtue of the access regimes on the grounds of protection of personal data, and parts of documents accessible by virtue of those regimes which contain personal data the re-use of which has been provided for by law as being incompatible with the law concerning the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.

Pursuant to Art 86, personal data “may be disclosed by the authority […] in order to reconcile the right to public access to official documents with the right to the protection of personal data”. This clarifies that the GDPR does not preclude a granting of access. It is the national legislatures’ task to “reconcile public access to official documents and the reuse of public sector information with the right to the protection of personal data” (Recital 154 sentence 4).

In this context, it must be considered that against a Member State “a right to access documents might directly be based on Art.11 Charter”. Pursuant to the case law of of the ECtHR , the ECtHR recognizes a right to access documents under Art.10 ECHR if:

(i) the party requesting access has a social “watchdog function which does not only encompass the press but also NGOs;

(ii) the requested information relates to a subject matter that is of public interest; and

(iii) the requesting party acts with the intention to disclose the received information to the public and thus, to contribute to the public discourse (ECtHR 14 April 2009 Tarsasag a Szabadsagjogokert v Hungary No. 37374/05; 26 May 2009,Kenedi v Hungary , No. 31475/05; 25 September 2013, Youth Initiative for Human Rights v Serbia No. 48135/06; 28 November 2013, Austrian Association for the preservation, strengthening and establishment of an economically healthy agriculture and forestry property v Austria No. 39534/07) Pursuant to Art 52 para 3 Charter, this case law of the ECtHR must be considered when interpreting Art 11 Charter.

As a member of Debt Resistance UK and a blogger, the first criteria is met.

The Second is met because a group of local authorities has issued a protective claims against Barclays and RBS regarding its involvement in manipulation of interest rate benchmarks and the impact of this on their ‘lender-option, borrower-option’(LOBO) loan transactions (some of which reference ISDAfix) with the bank.

Finally the third criteria is met as Debt Resistance will share information with the wider world to help the public better understand the historical issues surrounding benchmark manipulation and its impact on LOBO Loans.

The Information Tribunal in Hogan made this point at paragraph 60:

“While the public interest considerations against disclosure are narrowly conceived, the public interest considerations in favour of disclosure are broad-ranging and operate at different levels of abstraction from the subject matter of the exemption.”

There is a general public interest in promoting transparency, accountability, public understanding and involvement in the democratic process and the FOIA is a means of helping to meet that public interest, so it must always be given some weight in the public interest test.

Finally if my request is denied in whole or part, I ask that you justify any redaction or blanket refusal by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I will also expect all non-exempt material to be released.

I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as outlined by the statute

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Yours faithfully,

Joel M Benjamin

The Financial Conduct Authority

Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information Access Team. This is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you we have received your email safely. Please do not reply to this email. We will be in touch in due course.

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This communication and any attachments contain information which is confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy, distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some of our communications may contain confidential information which it could be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you have received this email in error please notify [email address] immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the FCA website (http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment Systems Regulator Limited)

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

1 Attachment

Our Ref: FOI6023

 

Dear Mr Benjamin,

 

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

 

Thank you for your email dated 31 December 2018 regarding the information
you have requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, with the FCA
reference FOI6023.  

 

We are considering the points you have raised and will contact you again
as soon as possible.  If it is likely to take more than 20 working days
from the date of receiving your email to respond in full, we will write to
you again.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Graham Holmes

Associate / Information Disclosure Team / Cyber and Information Resilience
Department 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D4025A.803ED2A0

12 Endeavour Square

London

E20 1JN

 

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7066 1000

 

[2]www.fca.org.uk

 

 

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
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to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
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This communication and any attachments contain information which is
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of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email
communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional
standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
2. http://www.fca.org.uk/

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

 

Our ref:  FOI6023

 

 

Dear Mr Benjamin

 

We refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the
Act), for information about the FCA’s decision not to investigate/take
enforcement action in relation to ISDAfix manipulation by ICAP.

 

We responded to your request on 19 October 2018 indicating that we
estimated that to comply with your request would exceed the cost limit
provided for in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and that section 12 (Cost of
compliance exceeds appropriate limit) of the Act applied.

 

You responded on 31 December 2018 explaining that you do not accept the
response provided and therefore request an internal review.

 

As part of our internal review on looking at your original request, we
have realised that it could be read in two different ways.

 

In the first instance, the request could be interpreted to be a narrow
request with both parts relating solely to ICAP.  Alternatively, it could
be a wider request with the first part relating to ICAP only, and the
second part for all relevant information (not confined to ICAP) in
relation to the FCA’s decision not to pursue or continue inquiries and
regulatory enforcement action in to potential manipulation of both USD and
GBP ISDAfix between 2011 and 2018.

 

In addition, in our response to you on 19 October 2018, we also indicated
that we could consider within the cost limit a request for the recorded
information relating to the decision by the FCA to close the review.

 

We should therefore be grateful if you could please confirm what
information you are seeking.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Information Disclosure Team

Financial Conduct Authority

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email
communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional
standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

Dear Freedom of Information Appeals,

I am hereby confirming that the request relates to the information base and circumstances whereby the FCA chose to discontinue regulatory investigations and/or enforcement action vs ICAP only (as clearly stated in title of the request), and the rationale/justification for the FCA's decision.

Given the scope/cost/time issues already identified by the FCA, and subsequent attempts by myself to further narrow the scope of the request, it would not be appropriate at the 11th hour to widen the scope of the request, to encompass wider ISDAfix inquiry issues, as the FCA appear to be suggesting.

Yours sincerely,

Joel M Benjamin

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

Our ref: FOI6023

Dear Mr Benjamin

Thank you for your email below providing clarification on the information you wish to receive.

We are considering your request for an internal review and will contact you again as soon as possible. If it is likely to take more than 20 working days from the date of receiving your clarification email to respond in full, we will write to you again.

Yours sincerely

Information Disclosure Team
Financial Conduct Authority

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

 

Our Ref: FOI6023

 

 

Dear Mr Benjamin

 

Further to our email dated 7 February 2019, we are writing to inform you
that we have not yet reached a decision regarding your request for an
internal review of the FCA’s response to your information request with the
above reference, made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

We are still considering this matter and hope to be in a position to
respond to you by 14 March 2019, although should we be able to contact you
sooner we will do so.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Disclosure Team

Financial Conduct Authority

 

 

 

 

 

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
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[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Hi

Would you be so kind as to tell me where I can find a link to the authority for your comment "Section 45 Code of Practice says that in providing advice and assistance, I should be allowed to speak to your FOI officer rather than conducting all correspondence over email"

This is an issue in a request I made to the FOS. But I was not aware of a specific code of practice provision regarding 'speaking to the FOI officer'.

Thanks in advance

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

1 Attachment

 

Our Ref: FOI6023

 

Dear Mr Benjamin

 

Freedom of Information : Right to know request

 

We refer to your email dated 31 December 2018 asking the Financial Conduct
Authority (“FCA”) to review its decision of 19 October 2018 in response to
the information you requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
with the above reference.  Please find attached the outcome of the FCA's
review.

 

Please accept our apologies for the time it has taken to complete this
review.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Disclosure Team

Financial Conduct Authority

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Limited.

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in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

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in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

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Systems Regulator Limited)

Dear Freedom of Information Appeals,

I would like the FCA to review its decision to refuse this request upon cost grounds for the following reasons:

1) The FCA FOIA team staff have not answered calls and/or returned answer phone messages in relation to narrowing the scope of this request within acceptable cost limits, and

2) Therefore The FCA has not adequately discharged its duty under FOIA to facilitate communication in a preferred format (phone rather than email communications)

In addition, having sat on the request for months, I note that the the FCA at the 11th hour attempted to widen the scope of the request - which was already sufficiently targeted and clear. Behaviour that is not consistent with a public body concerned about, nor preparing to refuse a request on cost grounds alone.

Yours sincerely,

Joel M Benjamin

Freedom of Information Appeals, The Financial Conduct Authority

Our ref: FOI6023

Dear Mr Benjamin

We refer to your email below following our response to your request for an internal review of the request dealt with under reference FOI6023.

In response to point 1 of your email, the Information Disclosure Team has no record of receiving any phone calls from you, nor having received any answer phone messages. In addition (and in respect of your point 2), we have reviewed the Section 45 Code of Practice and are unable to find any reference to the fact that an applicant should be "allowed to speak to [an] FOI officer over the phone rather than conducting all correspondence by email".

As we explained in our response to you on 14 March 2019, we considered that your request (albeit refined) was still too broad and that processing it would still exceed the appropriate cost limit as outlined in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. We also explained that, where we estimate that to comply with a request would exceed the appropriate limit, then we are expected to consider giving an indication of what, if any, information could be taken into account within the cost ceiling by advising how the request might be reformed or re-focussed. However, this requirement is expressly qualified "only in so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so". In the case of your own request for information we were not able to offer any further suggestions. We were therefore of the view that we were not able to determine whether there is information that we might be able to consider that would not exceed the appropriate limit set by the Regulations made under section 12 of the Act.

Notwithstanding the above, we would be happy to consider any further refined request that you may suggest. Any such refined request will be processed as a new request under the Act and assigned a new reference number.

Yours sincerely

Information Disclosure Team
Financial Conduct Authority

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