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Mar 25, 2026
The Bank of London has received a £2mn fine for misleading regulators about its capital position over a three-year period, including by providing fabricated documents that sought to conceal its financial health.
The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority found that TBOL and its parent company, Oplyse Holdings, had breached more than a dozen rules in their attempt to mislead regulators about its capital position.
Former senior managers of the British fintech, which launched with a “unicorn” $1bn valuation in 2021, were found to have knowingly misled the regulator over its true capital position.
It is both the first time the PRA has fined a company for “failing to conduct its business with integrity” and taken enforcement measures against a parent financial holding group, the regulator said in a statement on Tuesday.
The PRA said on Tuesday that the breaches occurred between October 2021 and May 2024. The bank was at the time run by its founder Anthony Watson, a former Barclays executive.
The fintech’s holding company also had former Goldman Sachs heavyweight Harvey Schwartz and Lord Peter Mandelson on its board during the period. The PRA did not accuse the two men of wrongdoing.
They both stepped down in October 2024 after TBOL was thrust into the spotlight in September by a winding-up order from UK tax authorities over unpaid debt, which was subsequently withdrawn. Watson also stepped down in September 2024.
Watson told the FT that he “noted” the PRA’s action. He added: “The enforcement action announced today is against The Bank of London Group Limited and Oplyse Holdings Limited. I was not given any advance notice of it, nor was I a party to that settlement.”
Lord Mandelson and a spokesperson for Schwartz both declined to comment.
The PRA said it would have fined TBOL £12mn but that such a fine would have resulted in serious financial hardship for the fintech, and so the penalty was reduced to £2mn.
The fine threatens to derail the bank’s attempted turnaround, which has involved a major restructuring and a clear-out of the group’s leadership. The fintech’s parent company was renamed from Bank of London Group Holdings to “Oplyse Holdings” — a Danish word meaning to enlighten.
TBOL said in a statement: “The matters described in the notice relate to a period when the Bank was under previous ownership and management.
“The Bank, its new management and its investors remain committed to an open, transparent and constructive relationship with the PRA and FCA. The Board and leadership team are confident that, with these legacy matters settled and with the backing of its investors, the Bank will continue to enhance trust and be able to return to growth in 2026.”
TBOL launched in late 2021 with a $1.1bn unicorn valuation that it said would help the start-up clearing bank compete with the likes of Barclays and NatWest.
Watson cultivated close ties to Labour, donating almost £500,000 to the party and its politicians, and boasted a life of luxury on social media, including attendance to lavish parties and trips on private jet.
The PRA on Tuesday said the firm had failed to notify the regulator of a capital shortfall and repeatedly reported that capital qualified towards its common equity tier one (CET1) capital when they knew it to be false.
“Most seriously, a then senior manager falsified a series of documents in order to mislead the PRA as to the true capital position,” the PRA wrote in its final notice.
Former members of TBOL’s senior management, whom the PRA did not name, also “intentionally misled the PRA as to the true capital position” both at group and firm level.
“This included submitting to the PRA a false account of the consolidated and solo capital position in a report of the firm’s capital requested by the PRA,” according to the regulator.
The notice also pointed out that the relationship between the fintech and its parent company was not appropriately disclosed.
The PRA also concluded that TBOL leadership failed to tell regulators about ‘Project Rainbow’, the code name given to crisis talks held to prepare the bank for insolvency in 2024 amid a cash crunch. Those involved in discussing the group’s cash shortage were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
“The PRA was never informed of Project Rainbow or any concerns with Group or the Firm’s solvency,” the notice states. “Neither was the PRA informed the Firm’s runway for operating cash lasted only until 1 May 2024.”
https://www.ft.com/content/1c51d0a0-643e-46dc-9ede-84f5fdb4ed74?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Former Reader of ‘FT’.
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